CTECH – Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News June 7, 2023
The great AI gold rush: Are tech stocks riding a wave or heading for a crash? Market dominance or risky speculation? Evaluating the technology sector’s soaring stocks. Read more
Intel seizes opportunity, sells Mobileye shares to boost finances amid AI race. Strategic move will generate approximately $1.5 billion and aims to secure funding for advanced chip technology. Read more
Looking good: Israeli startup Sightful takes on Apple in AR glasses race. Sightful’s Spacetop, a laptop with no physical screen that comes instead with augmented reality (AR) glasses, is being sold for $2,000, far cheaper than the $3,500 Apple is asking for Vision Pro. Calcalist shares a first look at the Israeli company’s technology. Read more
Onebeat secures $10 million Series B for AI-enabled supply chain solutions. The Israeli startup’s platform helps retailers by synchronizing store management, online sales, and product assortment. Read more
“It is increasingly crucial to ensure that Seed capital can sustain a startup for at least 24 months.” Nathan Shuchami, Managing Partner at Hyperwise Ventures, spoke with CTech as part of the project “Where do we go from here?”, which aims to examine how the Israeli VC industry is dealing with the crisis in the sector. Read more
Sam Altman: “Israel will play a huge role in AI development.” The CEO and founder of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was speaking after meeting Israel’s President Isaac Herzog during a visit to the country. During the meeting, Herzog congratulated Altman on the letter he published together with other senior officials in the industry regarding the dangers of artificial intelligence. Read more
Israeli tech has some amazing stories. So why are founders so bad at telling them? James Vincent helped Steve Jobs tell Apple’s story – here’s the advice he has for Startup Nation. Read more
Humanz raises $5 million Series A for AI-based influencer marketing platform. The Israeli startup has developed a platform that characterizes a customer journey (follower) on websites and knows how to measure and reflect in real time the success of influencers and content creators. Read more
“The sky’s the limit when Israeli innovation is combined with the Japanese way of doing things.” “Israel-Japan relations in all fields are like the sakura, the ‘cherry blossom’ in Japanese,” Israel’s Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen told CTech at the Israel-Japan Conference in Tokyo. Watch full video
Why did SentinelOne shares plummet by 35% in a single day? SentinelOne stock fell on Friday following disappointing financial reports and the news of the layoffs of 5% of its employees. The good news is that the company is still growing and has enough financial breathing room to weather the crisis. Read more
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives in Israel, will meet the President, but not Netanyahu. There were attempts to arrange a meeting between Altman and the Prime Minister, but it is believed that Altman is not interested in meeting with Netanyahu partly due to the political situation and the PM’s status as a controversial figure in the high-tech industry. Read more
CTalk | “Israel is attractive to us because we invest in cutting edge technologies.” Yuki Hashimoto, Senior Associate at Toyota Tsusho, spoke with CTech at the Israel-Japan Conference in Tokyo, noting his company has already invested in two Israeli autotech startups, UVeye and Aurora Labs. Read more
“There’s huge potential in Japan, it really is an untapped market.” Ori Zifroni, Head of Strategy at Dentsu Israel, spoke with CTech at the Israel-Japan Conference in Tokyo. “There are many external factors Israeli companies must take into consideration in dealing with the Japanese market, the language, the culture, etc., but we are here to create this bridge.” Read more
Smooth sailing: “Israel is like a small boat, easily navigating business from China to Dubai to Japan.” “There’s a reason why all the CEOs are coming to Japan now,” said Oded Hermoni, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at J-Ventures, speaking to CTech at the Israel-Japan Conference in Tokyo. “Israelis are adventurers looking for different opportunities, much more than Americans are.” Read more
Outbrain ousts 10% of workforce in second round of layoffs. The internet recommendation platform is laying off around 90 employees after firing 38 people last summer. Read more
Don’t play it again, Sam: OpenAI CEO Altman seeking direction for his wayward chatbot. The CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has launched a $1 million scholarship program to fund experiments in setting up a democratic process for deciding what rules AI systems should follow. But instead of focusing on the dangers that are already here, Altman and his counterparts are highlighting distant future threats. Read more
Fusion raises $20 million pre-Seed fund for Israeli startups. The new fund is backed by Insight Partners along with 70 serial entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Israel and the U.S. Read more
Ariga raises $18 million for database schema changes platform. The Israeli startup’s platform enables software engineering teams to manage database schema changes in a faster and safer way. Read more
“We believe in the ‘born in Israel, made in Japan’ method.” Eyal Agmoni, founder of Chartered Group, shared his vision for business relations between Israel and Japan. Yasuhide Nakayama, former State Minister of Defense and former State Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, added that Japan could benefit from Israel’s “great waterfall of knowledge.” Read more
Nvidia building one of the world’s fastest generative AI supercomputers in Israel. The Israel-1 supercomputer was developed in Israel over the past 18 months at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Read more
One of a kind: Israeli high-tech pioneer Zohar Zisapel’s final interview. As one of the founding fathers of Israeli high-tech, and of the RAD Group, Zohar Zisapel helped birth more than 100 startups. Just a week before his passing from cancer, Zisapel sat down with Calcalist to share his many thoughts and wisdom in what would become his final interview. Read more
Israel Police purchased new surveillance software without AG approval. After shutting down NSO’s Pegasus, the police recently purchased software from Israeli cyber company Rayzone that can track the location and movement of cellphone users without their knowledge. Read more
Opinion | Startups, prepare for your AI due diligence. “With great power comes great responsibility, and irresponsible use of AI, especially in startups, can have far-reaching consequences, impacting the company’s valuation and its ability to be sold,” writes Adv. Assaf Harel. Read more
