Dovi Frances, Founding Partner of Group 11 venture capital fund, presented Monday at the Accountant General’s Conference held in Jerusalem an optimistic vision for Israel’s position as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
The Israeli-American investor emphasized Israel’s unique potential while noting the need to approve the establishment of an AI acceleration headquarters in Israel at the Prime Minister’s Office, as well as the associated budget for building supercomputing and computational infrastructure in Israel, following the recommendations of the Nagel Committee and previous discussions on the subject.
Frances cited figures demonstrating Israel’s potential: “We are 0.4% of the world, and we lead twenty percent of global innovation. We have 350 international R&D centers, 10% of our workforce in high-tech contributes 18-20% to GDP.” Frances also noted that 15-25% of Fortune 500 CEOs are Jewish or Israeli, and that Israel has 46 unicorns – companies valued at over a billion dollars – the highest ratio in the world relative to population.
Frances presented the Nagel Committee’s recommendations for a national artificial intelligence plan containing four pillars: establishing a national AI headquarters with a budget that enables appropriate salaries for professional staff, building an Israeli supercomputer with an investment of 24 billion shekels, opening government databases for AI development, and revolutionizing the education system to train a new generation of AI engineers and scientists. “If you believe in God, you believe in superhuman intelligence – superhuman intelligence is already embedded in us, in our DNA, and it is destined to arrive soon in our days.”
Frances surveyed a comparison with Israel’s neighbors: “The UAE, where only 12% of the population was born in the country, has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in artificial intelligence in recent years. Saudi Arabia has a single-digit number of unicorns compared to 46 in Israel.” Frances noted that Israel’s proposed investment of 24 billion shekels is about 3% of the UAE’s investment scale in recent years, “It’s like 2.5 F-35 squadrons – a relatively small investment that can yield enormous results. The time has come to roll up our sleeves, unite forces and make artificial intelligence in Israel something sustainable. Israel can lead the global artificial intelligence revolution and become a global AI superpower,” he concluded.
Dovi Frances is the Founding Partner of Group 11, a Los Angeles-based venture capital fund, founder of The Institute at Ben-Gurion University – Israel’s national institute for AI advancement, and author of the bestseller “An Introduction to Victory.” His funds manage investments with a fair value of over $1.4 billion and focus on investments in category-defining artificial intelligence companies. The fund was recognized as the best performing venture capital fund in the US in 2024 by PREQIN and ranked third globally in the HEC Paris-Dow Jones performance ranking. This year the fund was selected by TIME magazine as one of America’s leading venture capital funds.