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Israel's Silicon Wadi Is Bringing in Billions from Investors
(Institutional Investor) Jonathan Kandell - At Israel's annual Autonomous, Unmanned Systems & Robotics (AUS&R) convention, drone models included a tiny, kamikaze-like craft bearing an explosive charge that hovers and surveys its surroundings until its controller directs it to crash into and blow up a target; a drone as large as a tank that can ferry soldiers and cargo in and out of urban combat zones; and a UAV with the wingspan of a business jet that can stay aloft for more than a day on espionage missions. Israel has transformed itself into a high-tech industrial nation with a per capita income of $35,300, just behind France. Israel has spawned more high-tech start-ups than all of Europe. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, and hundreds of European and Asian businesses are investing heavily in their Israeli R&D operations, which account for about half of the nation's 290,000 high-tech jobs. Some 350 global companies have R&D operations in Israel. In 2015 a record $9 billion was spent, mainly by foreign companies, to acquire 104 Israeli outfits.