CTECH – Latest Israeli Innovation & Tech News Aug. 18, 2026
Pentera lays off another 60 employees in second round of cuts in four months. The latest cuts affect about 60 employees, including 30 in Israel, bringing the total number of layoffs since April to roughly 100, or 20% of Pentera’s workforce, even as the company continues hiring for AI-related positions. Read more
Microsoft taps Nvidia Israel executive Nati Amsterdam to lead its Israeli operations. Amsterdam, who helped build Nvidia’s local business after joining the chipmaker in 2017, will take over as Microsoft Israel’s General Manager in October. Read more
Israel’s economy bounced back from war, but the 15.4% growth figure tells only part of the story. GDP surged in the second quarter after the latest war with Iran, pushing the economy above its pre-war peak faster than after the previous conflict. But over the first half of the year, growth was a more modest 3.2%, while domestic consumption weakened and an increasing share of activity took place abroad. Read more
America’s new cyber strategy could be a big opportunity for Israeli companies. The White House is creating a framework for private firms to conduct active operations against transnational criminals, while Israeli companies may have an advantage in intelligence, data and cyber technology. Read more
DoiT acquires Israeli startup Attribute for estimated $65 million. Attribute’s technology gives organizations a real-time view of spending on AI tokens, models and cloud resources, down to individual teams, products, agents and customers. Read more
Surf AI: “AI is fundamentally transforming the security research landscape for the better.” Shoham Danino, Senior Researcher at Surf AI, explains how AI is freeing up research experts to focus on creative thinking, as part of CTech’s Security Researchers series. Read mor
Anthropic closes in on $7 billion Decart deal after beating Nvidia to the table. The Israeli AI startup’s founders and Sequoia favor Anthropic despite a higher reported offer from Nvidia, while Google and SpaceX remain potential alternatives. Read more
Anthropic’s $7 billion Decart deal puts a spotlight on its little-known 23-year-old co-founder and chief scientist. Orian Leitersdorf has largely remained out of the spotlight as his brother Dean and Moshe Shalev built Decart into one of Israel’s most closely watched AI startups. Now, the proposed acquisition could make all three founders billionaires and give the 23-year-old scientist a role inside one of the world’s leading AI companies. Read more
Israel’s GDP is booming. Its domestic economy is telling a different story. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 15.4% in the second quarter as activity rebounded from the war. But strip out production by Israeli companies abroad and growth in the first half falls to just 1%, pointing to a far weaker domestic recovery. Read more
Cyber incident at crypto company Bits of Gold: customers’ personal details may have leaked. Bits of Gold reported a data breach involving stolen customer details like full names, IDs, emails, IP addresses, and phone numbers. The company confirmed that funds, coins, passwords, ID copies, and credit card details were unaffected. Read more
“Sell everything you have vested.” Raanan Cohen learned the hard way what happens when employees keep waiting for their startup shares to become worth even more. Now he is trying to convince others to take some money off the table. Read more
The AI boom is reviving America’s nuclear dream. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are pouring money into reactors and long-term nuclear power deals as they race to secure the electricity needed to run the next generation of AI data centers. Read more
Remepy raises $36 million Series A as it prepares AI-driven Parkinson’s treatment for Phase III. The Israeli company’s Hybridopa program has shown improvements in motor and non-motor symptoms in Phase IIa trials, while a new partnership with Merck is expanding its approach into rare tumors. Read more
Team8 raises $365 million as AI widens the gap between adoption and security. The Israeli venture firm has closed a $265 million third fund and more than $100 million for follow-on investments, focusing on the infrastructure and cybersecurity layers enterprises will need as AI agents move rapidly from experimentation into production. Read more
Israel selects Ondas to build “Digital Bat” low-cost attack drones. The multi-million-dollar program will develop a new generation of tactical attack drones designed for rapid deployment and scalable production, reflecting Israel’s growing focus on affordable autonomous weapons for frontline forces. Read more
Employment immunity: the quiet revolution of robotics and physical AI. As Startup Nation’s traditional software categories face a wave of headwinds and layoffs, robotics and physical AI are emerging as one of the defining industries of the next decade, gearing up for an imminent boom of their own. Read more
Covenant takes its long-range missile from secrecy to a live-fire test in Morocco. The American defense startup, with subsidiaries in Israel and Germany, tested its Anthem cruise missile at a new U.S.-Moroccan military range as Washington seeks to speed up weapons development. Read more
