Several Israeli companies were bought in multi-billion-dollar deals by big international corporations, such as Google and Apple over the past month, as Israeli innovation continues to capture the world’s attention.
The biggest purchase was made by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which bought the Israeli company Wiz for a whopping $32 billion. This was the largest acquisition of an Israeli company and the most expensive deal Alphabet has ever made.
The purchase was announced last year but was only finalized earlier this month after European regulators approved the deal.
Wiz provides cybersecurity software for cloud applications. The acquisition is expected to help Google compete with more established cloud service providers, such as Amazon and Microsoft. The company will remain an independent business and is expected to grow as part of the Google Cloud framework.
At the end of January, Apple announced it was buying the Israeli startup Q.ai for more than $1.5 billion, Apple’s second-largest acquisition ever. Q.ai uses a system of optical sensors to detect micro-movements of facial muscles, skin, and the jaw, enabling speech recognition even when a user only moves their lips, whispers, or speaks in a noisy environment. This would help address clarity and quality issues with traditional earphone microphones.
Until its purchase, Q.ai was relatively unknown and seemed interested in keeping it that way. There was no formal announcement of its establishment, no public employee recruitment, and few press releases.
Earlier this month, another Israeli AI company, Tavily, was acquired by the Dutch artificial intelligence company Nebius in a deal valued between $275 million and $400 million. Tavily builds search engines specially designed for AI platforms.
Yet another Israeli AI company, Cymbio, was bought up by PayPal in late January. Cymbio helps brands promote and sell their products across AI-driven shopping platforms. The purchase is estimated to have been worth several hundred million dollars.
In addition, Israeli AI company, CombinAble.AI, was purchased by the AI therapeutics company Insitro in January as well. While the purchase price was reportedly not very high, the deal includes transforming CombinAble.AI into a research and development center for Insitro in Israel, a major boost for Israel’s status as a center for technological and medical innovation. CombinAble.AI uses AI to accelerate and improve the discovery, design, and production of molecules for medical applications, including antibodies, proteins, and vaccines. Insitro was founded and is headed by Israeli-American Daphne Koller.
2025: A record-breaking year for Israeli hi-tech
2025 was a record-breaking year for Israeli hi-tech, with global acquisitions of Israeli-founded companies totalling an estimated $88 billion, although some of these deals only received final approval in 2026. Without the three largest deals, companies both in Israel and abroad spent $17.78 billion on buying Israeli tech companies in 182 acquisitions last year, according to a study by research firm IVC and LeumiTech.
The study, however, noted that most of these acquisitions were relatively small, with many companies selling for less than they had raised from investors when they were first founded. A handful of larger deals are what mostly tipped the scales.
2025 also marked another positive shift: for the first time in over a decade, more hi-tech startups were established than in the previous year. Between 750 and 800 companies were established in 2025, compared to about 700 in 2024, marking a turning point after a long downward trend in the annual number of new companies.
Israeli shipping giant purchased by German company
Hi-tech isn’t the only field in Israel seeing major acquisitions. Earlier this week, the Israeli shipping giant Zim announced that the German Hapag-Lloyd company was acquiring it for $4.2 billion.
As part of the deal, control over the company will be split between Hapag-Lloyd and the Israeli private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Funds. FIMI will acquire all activities related to Israel, including the company’s headquarters, and assume responsibility for the company’s relationship with the State of Israel. Hapag-Lloyd will acquire ZIM’s international operations.
Analysts have expressed concerns about the strategic risks posed to Israel by ZIM’s sale. The Maritime Policy and Strategy Institute warned in a position paper published this week that a foreign company like Hapag-Lloyd may put economic concerns over the state’s needs in an emergency. If a war erupts and ports are attacked, Israel could be left without crucial shipping services.
The Institute argued that, considering attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on shipping lanes over the past few years, which led to many companies limiting their shipments to Israel, the state needs to have an “Iron Fleet” under full Israeli control to ensure the arrival of essential supplies.
Originally Published Feb 20, 2026 03:03PM EST
