The Israeli Innovation Authority announced the opening of bids for other companies to build the government supercomputer, after negotiations with Amazon and Google regarding the project failed, according to what the Israeli Globes platform reported.
According to a Globes report, a call for bids worth up to NIS 290 million (about $79.4 million) has been issued, with a government grant of NIS 160 million ($44 million) available to the winner of the bid.
Details of conversations
The authority had held extensive talks with Amazon and Google, based on their success in winning the Nimbus government cloud tender. But Google decided that the current tender was not economically worthy, and did not advance to the final stages. As for Amazon, it participated in the tender but was not selected for several reasons that were not disclosed.
Globes explained that the tender aims to build a supercomputer consisting of a group of connected servers capable of performing complex calculations that exceed the capabilities of simple computers.
Bidding requirements
The tender requires that the supercomputer contain at least 1,000 advanced graphics accelerators from NVIDIA, Intel, or AMD.
The supercomputer will be used to support academia and the technology industry in Israel, including drug development, simulating nuclear tests, and photographing 3D urban environments to train self-driving cars, according to the same source.
The report indicates that other companies may submit to the tender, such as cloud companies that did not win the Nimbus tender, such as Oracle and Microsoft.
Israel operates another supercomputer, the NVIDIA Israel 1, but it is currently limited to internal operations. However, it is expected to open its use to the industrial sector next year, according to Globes.
There is an ongoing controversy surrounding the project
This development comes after the escalation of controversy surrounding Project Nimbus, a joint cloud computing project worth $1.2 billion between Amazon, Google, and the Israeli government. The project aims to establish regional data centers that serve the Israeli government and ensure the continuity of services even in light of international pressure.
According to a report published by Wired, the Nimbus project was subjected to severe criticism and protests organized by activists in the United States.
One of the Amazon summits in New York witnessed strict security measures to prevent protests, as participation was limited to previously authorized individuals, with attendees’ bags searched to prevent the introduction of protest materials.
It is noteworthy that the protests against the project were led by organizations such as “No Technology for Apartheid” and “Jewish Voice for Peace,” which have repeatedly called for an end to cooperation with Israel due to the use of these technologies to monitor Palestinians.
