Opinion
If we don’t build a data brand in Israel, we’ll miss the AI revolution
"Israel doesn’t have to remain just the 'Cyber Nation'. It can also become the 'Data Nation.'," writes Guy Fighel, a Partner at Hetz Ventures and Head of the Hetz Data (SPARQL) Program.
As someone who has been immersed in Israeli high-tech since its early days in cybersecurity, I vividly remember when “cyber” wasn’t yet a buzzword but rather an experimental field emerging from military units. I saw up close how that pipeline turned into a massive industry, with companies going public and turning Israel into the “Cyber Nation.” Today, through my extensive professional network in Israel and abroad, I see a similar process beginning to unfold around data and AI.
If cybersecurity was born out of threat, this one is born out of opportunity, and the potential is no less significant.
Yet while we rightfully celebrate Israel’s cyber success, another global transformation is quietly taking place, this time around data. In the U.S., data has become a leading player: names like Databricks and Snowflake, valued from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars, and others such as dbt Labs and Confluent, worth several billions, no longer need introductions. All are setting new benchmarks for growth in the infrastructure domain.
One figure illustrates the trend more than anything: Databricks reports an annual run rate of about $3.7 billion, growing roughly 50% year over year. Snowflake, a public company, reported $3.5 billion in product revenue for the fiscal year ending January 2025 - a 30% annual growth. These figures demonstrate that the world is placing its confidence in data companies just as much as, and sometimes even more than, in cybersecurity firms.
You can see it in the headlines: Fivetran is in merger talks worth billions with dbt Labs, CoreWeave has acquired OpenPipe and Weights & Biases, and NVIDIA purchased Israel’s Run:AI. The AI layer is rapidly consolidating, the lines between data, infrastructure, and AI are blurring, and the global market is signaling loud and clear: the data era has arrived and it’s accelerating fast.
Why Is No One Talking About Data in Israel?
The answer lies in culture and perception. Cybersecurity is tangible: there’s a threat, an attacker, an immediate need for defense. Headlines about cyberattacks and security breaches create “media fuel” that drives public and investor attention.
Data, on the other hand, seems gray and unexciting - an issue of integration, data quality, infrastructure management, and system order.
And yet, that quietness is precisely its strength. Those who build deep, stable data systems are laying the foundations upon which every AI-driven organization will rely in the coming years. The demand for data stems not from fear but from opportunity. And it’s a massive one.
Why Israel Is Uniquely Positioned to Lead
Israel has everything it takes to lead in this field:
- Exceptional technological talent: Israeli engineers excel at building complex systems under constraints. They know how to work with messy infrastructures, create smart integrations, and streamline cumbersome systems into efficient ones.
- A systems-thinking DNA: Those who grew up in defense or tech units understand how to build comprehensive solutions under tight time and resource limits. That’s exactly the mindset needed in the data world.
- A mature entrepreneurial ecosystem: Israel already built a global brand around cyber. There’s no reason it can’t do it again, this time around data.
I remember the early days of Israel’s military cyber units. At first, it seemed experimental, but within a few years, we saw a wave of startups that changed the global landscape. Today, looking at the data domain, the feeling is familiar: the infrastructure is here, the global market is there, and what’s missing is mostly awareness, recognition, and focus at home. The goal isn’t to replace the “Cyber Nation” brand, but to add another layer to it: Data Nation.
Ignoring the data world could come at a high cost. As the business world becomes AI-driven, the main bottleneck will no longer be defense against attacks, but the ability to manage, unify, and operationalize data at scale. The companies that solve this challenge will dominate the upper layers of the technology stack and gain a long-term structural advantage.
To avoid missing the train, we must start talking about data no less than we talk about cyber. The media should highlight more success stories, investors should seek the next generation of data companies, and Israeli entrepreneurs should realize this is a field where they can truly shine.
Israel doesn’t have to remain just the “Cyber Nation.” It can also become the “Data Nation.” If we recognize this moment and speak about it loudly enough, then a few years from now we’ll be able to tell the same success story again, this time about the technologies fueling AI and shaping the future of Israeli industry.
As someone who has spent years at the intersection of data and organizations, I’m confident Israel can lead this revolution too.
Guy Fighel is a Partner at Hetz Ventures and Head of the Hetz Data (SPARQL) Program.
