Emerging Technology, Deep Tech

Israel Innovation Authority Funds Photonic Chip Development With NIS 150M

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June 14, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

A NIS 150 million investment from the Israel Innovation Authority and the Directorate of Defense Research & Development will establish new national infrastructure dedicated to the complete development cycle of integrated photonic chips. This initiative aims to support everything from initial design and simulation to prototype creation, testing, packaging, and volume manufacturing, both within Israel and internationally. According to Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, “Integrated photonics is expected to become one of the core technologies of the semiconductor industry in the coming years,” and this funding is designed to accelerate the translation of research into marketable products. The new infrastructure will strengthen Israel’s position in the rapidly expanding semiconductor industry and shorten the path from innovation to commercial availability.

NIS 150 Million Initiative for Integrated Photonics R&D

The new infrastructure will be open to both industrial corporations and academic institutions, requiring applicants to demonstrate a robust technology plan, a viable business model, and a framework for broad accessibility. Selected entities will face stringent requirements, including rapid turnaround times and support for diverse materials, with a mandate to begin offering partial R&D services within 12 months of approval. Brig. Daniel Gold, Head of DDR&D (MAFAT), emphasized that integrated photonics “opens new possibilities for developing advanced, high-performance systems” and will establish a lasting national capability for research, industry, and defense.

Integrated photonics opens new possibilities for developing advanced, high-performance systems across a wide range of applications.

Brig. Daniel Gold, Head of DDR&D (MAFAT) at the Ministry of Defense

Infrastructure Requirements for Industrial Standards & Access

Integrated photonics research and development in Israel currently has strong academic foundations and early-stage innovation, but lacks late-stage infrastructure. Companies frequently face challenges transitioning from successful prototypes to commercially viable products due to limited access to facilities for advanced manufacturing, testing, and packaging. This substantial investment signals a strategic prioritization of a technology expected to see significant growth within the semiconductor industry. The planned infrastructure will encompass the entire development lifecycle, from initial design and simulation through prototype development, characterization, testing, packaging, and support for transition to volume manufacturing. Applicants for funding will be evaluated on their ability to deliver a sustainable operating model, ensuring long-term accessibility for both industrial and academic users, and to meet stringent industrial standards regarding turnaround times and service availability. Applicants for the funding, which will be awarded to industrial corporations or consortiums, must demonstrate a robust plan for technological advancement, business viability, and broad accessibility for both academic and industry users.

Integrated photonics is expected to become one of the core technologies of the semiconductor industry in the coming years.

Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority
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Integrated Photonics photonic chips Semiconductor Industry
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Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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