![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Israel-Innovation-Authority.png\")
<\/p>\nDror Bin speaks with The Media Line about the challenges of quantum computing and AI, and the need for unparalleled cooperation and learning\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next great technological revolution may emerge from a web of processors, algorithms and controllers, each built by different companies and tested together for the first time. For Israel, that is the premise behind a proposed national quantum-computing research and development center\u2014and the reason Israel Innovation Authority CEO Dror Bin believes the country must move now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil just a few years ago, it was seen as something which is too futuristic and will not happen in our generation,\u201d Bin said of quantum computing. \u201cBut in the last few years, there was really an acceleration in the development of such computers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Israel Innovation Authority. (Screenshot: YouTube)<\/p>\n
For Bin, the project is an effort to create the conditions in which Israeli companies can test, combine and refine the technologies that could become part of the world\u2019s most advanced systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked about the center\u2019s main purpose, Bin described an emerging cluster of Israeli companies developing quantum technologies and components. \u201cSome of them are already category leaders in some components of the future quantum computers,\u201d he told The Media Line, adding that \u201csomething like 10% of the overall private investment in quantum computing companies was made in Israel, in those early-stage companies\u201d in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The challenge, he argued, is integration. Some firms are developing processors; others are building algorithms or controllers. The proposed center would place those capabilities in a shared environment, creating what Bin called \u201cthe full stack of a quantum computer based on Israeli technology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet the immediate ambition is deliberately more practical than building a finished national machine. \u201cNot in order to create a computer, but rather to create an R&D lab in which different components of hardware and software can be tested, can be integrated, can be benchmarked to see that everything really works together,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That distinction reflects a central feature of Israel\u2019s technology model: specialize, collaborate and compete where the country can make an outsized contribution. Quantum computing, Bin explained, differs fundamentally from classical systems, which process bits in either a zero or one state. Quantum systems use quantum bits \u201cin various positions,\u201d enabling vastly more powerful calculations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thesis is that things that probably would take a regular computer many years, hundreds of years, thousands of years to solve, a quantum computer would be able to solve very quickly,\u201d he said, describing scientific and technological problems beyond the reach of conventional computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Israeli high tech must be also in the forefront of the quantum computing innovation wave<\/p>\n
Bin expects usable quantum applications before 2030. \u201cThe Israeli high tech must be also in the forefront of the quantum computing innovation wave,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United States, with companies including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, has set much of the pace in quantum development. Other countries\u2014from China and Canada to Britain, Germany, Japan and Australia\u2014are also investing heavily. Israel\u2019s path, Bin suggested, will not necessarily be measured by whether it produces an entire quantum computer on its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the history of Israeli high tech, Israeli entrepreneurs and investors and also the state investments were much lower than other countries, but yet with very good results,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response to a question about Israel\u2019s ability to become one of the world\u2019s top five quantum players, Bin pointed to an unusual balance between public and private funding. \u201cIsrael really is an outlier in terms of the ratio between private and public investments, much more private investments,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel really is an outlier in terms of the ratio between private and public investments, much more private investments<\/p>\n
That is by design. \u201cWe want to see the entrepreneurs and the investors take the lead and the government only invest in order to help them grow their companies,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal, therefore, is not necessarily to own every layer of a quantum system. \u201cNot necessarily in having the full stack of a quantum computer, but for sure, Israeli companies are going to be part of the leading computers in some categories,\u201d he said, citing controllers as one example. \u201cIsraeli companies are going to be part of the leaders of this new technology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quantum computing remains a future-facing field, but Bin sees a more immediate opening for regional technology cooperation: artificial intelligence. In discussing partnerships between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East, he focused on a basic mismatch that could become an advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Quantum computer. (Screenshot: YouTube)<\/p>\n
\u201cAI requires, from one hand, a lot of technology, which Israel excels in,\u201d Bin said. \u201cBut also from the other end, it needs for the data centers, lots of land and lots of energy, which Israel does not have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s limits, he said, could complement the strengths of nearby countries. \u201cWe are a tiny country with a limited amount of energy. And this is, for me, a great opportunity. The countries around us have lots of energy and lots of land.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His vision is direct: \u201cIf we can connect the dots and create this synergy that data centers are built in our surrounding countries and technology comes from here, and then we build something together, this could be a very good way forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, the overlap of AI and quantum technologies could widen the horizon still further. \u201cOnce quantum computers are there, think about the combination of AI training and AI inference on quantum computers,\u201d Bin told The Media Line. \u201cEverything AI can do today, at the end of the decade, only our imagination can try to figure out what will be this combination and what outcome it will bring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same acceleration that excites Bin also worries him. When asked about technologies racing to market without adequate safeguards, he said government and regulators must not merely catch up after damage occurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely. I completely agree that governments should be involved, regulators should be involved,\u201d he said. \u201cIn each technology, there are many opportunities and many risks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bin compared the current moment to the Industrial Revolution, when the steam engine transformed economies but initially produced severe social consequences. \u201cIn the first few decades after this invention, there were many negative things that happened,\u201d he said, noting that workers were pushed into factories under brutal conditions before regulation improved standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The difference today, he argued, is time. \u201cThose technologies are developing so fast that we cannot wait a few decades and see what happens,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He called for regulators able to understand emerging technologies, capture their benefits and protect the public and the economy from their dangers. \u201cRegulators should be deeply involved and try to hedge against the risks of those technologies,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regulators should be deeply involved and try to hedge against the risks of those technologies<\/p>\n
The next technology wave is also a human challenge. Quantum computing depends heavily on universities and scientific research, Bin said, because the companies now growing in Israel began with scientists or groups of scientists leaving academia to develop new systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he placed equal emphasis on adaptability as AI reshapes computer science, software products and the ways companies defend themselves against competition. \u201cEverything changes,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing that you learn in the university is how to learn. It\u2019s not necessarily the knowledge that you gain, but rather the way you gain it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bin offered his own experience: after beginning his high-tech career three decades ago and later moving away from coding into business roles, he recently taught himself how to use AI to develop code. \u201cAnd I was very happy with the result,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His message is neither complacent nor fatalistic. \u201cPeople need to adjust, need to learn new skills, new capabilities. AI is going to change everything. Many people are going to lose their jobs.\u201d But, he added, those who reskill can find new and rewarding opportunities, particularly in Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That advice extends beyond technically trained workers. Commenting on people whose strengths lie in writing or critical thinking rather than engineering, Bin said the barriers to using AI are lower than many believe. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to use AI. If you are not scared of it and you just jump to the water and start playing with it, you see it\u2019s quite easy to use it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The deeper difficulty is conceptual. \u201cWhen you use AI, you need to shift your paradigm. You need to think about your business or about your job in a different way than before,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Bin, this applies to individuals, companies and entire economies. \u201cIt\u2019s a disruption time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time ever that we are not investing in just technology. We are inventing intelligence which is going to be smarter than humans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That direction demands a new habit of skepticism, especially where AI-generated information can be wrong. Asked about errors in news-related uses of AI, Bin said users must repeatedly interrogate what they receive: \u201cIs that true? Is that correct? Should I ask the question in a different way?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is part of the skills that you need to develop in order to really get out of AI the best you can get,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Innovation Authority is also responding to a more immediate problem: the impact of a strong Israeli shekel on startups that raise capital or earn revenue in foreign currencies while paying many expenses in shekels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bin resisted calling the situation a crisis. \u201cAt the end of the day, a strong shekel means that the Israeli economy is very strong. And this is a good thing,\u201d he said. Still, he acknowledged the consequences. \u201cNo, there are challenges. But it\u2019s hard for me to use the term crisis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He linked the currency\u2019s strength largely to high-tech investment, saying that 2025 saw \u201cmore than $100 billion that poured into the Israeli ecosystem, either for early-stage funding or for M&As.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For an individual startup, however, the impact can be severe. \u201cThink about a startup that has raised money for 24 months in order to reach a certain milestone that will allow them to raise more funds,\u201d Bin said. \u201cAnd suddenly, those 24 months, the sum was raised in dollars, the costs are in shekels, and suddenly, you have only 18 months.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Companies relying on global sales face a related squeeze: revenues arrive in dollars or other currencies, while costs remain in shekels. \u201cSo, the profit is gone. Sometimes you\u2019ll get to the red line,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authority\u2019s response is a planned special fund to extend startups\u2019 operational runway, helping viable companies reach their next funding milestone rather than being derailed by macroeconomic forces outside their control. \u201cThe last thing we want to see is a whole cohort of great startups suffering from something that they had nothing to do with,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In tandem with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the Israel Innovation Authority has also announced a 6 million shekel program for BlueTech energy. Bin described it as part of a broader search for new sectors that can generate innovation, startups and scale-ups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s coastline is an underused national asset, he said. \u201cWe believe there is some potential there for technologies to harvest energy, to store energy, either from the waves or from the wind or from maybe even biological origins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The program seeks proposals from researchers willing to turn scientific ideas into commercial solutions. \u201cWe want to see, again, scientists coming out of their labs, proposing ideas how to leverage this asset of the country,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The intended technologies would serve Israel but could also be relevant to countries with shorelines around the world. \u201cThose are the things that we would like to finance,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bin\u2019s vision for quantum, AI, energy, and entrepreneurship comes as he prepares to step down after five years at the helm of the Israel Innovation Authority\u2014years that encompassed COVID-19, war and intense pressure on the country\u2019s innovation ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years, and \u2026 not easy years. It was like a roller coaster in those five years,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked why he is leaving now, Bin said he believes he has fulfilled his role in steering the authority\u2019s investments and the government\u2019s approach toward the technology ecosystem. \u201cNow it\u2019s time for me to move on and to have someone continue the work after me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bin, a veteran high-tech executive and former CEO of RAD Data Communications, has not yet decided on his next position. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019m still contemplating on, to decide what excites me to do next,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knows the standard will be high. \u201cThis position of the CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority is probably one of the most interesting positions in Israel,\u201d he told The Media Line. \u201cSo, it will be difficult to find something more interesting than that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet his principle remains simple: \u201cI believe that people need to do things that excite them. This is what I\u2019m looking for now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the most difficult moment of his tenure, Bin said it came on October 8\u2014the day after the war began. It exposed how quickly a national crisis could threaten the mechanics of an innovation economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about startups that suddenly half of their staff was gone, either to military reserve or to volunteering activities, or people that had to stay at home with their kids because the education system was shut down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The disruption spread through every part of the ecosystem: companies could not send sales and marketing teams abroad because flights were unavailable; investors could not enter the country for due diligence; and startups caught mid-fundraising faced suddenly frozen investment decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge was crazy, first of all, for the entrepreneurs, the CEOs, the investors,\u201d Bin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authority responded with a fast-track funding channel for companies in the middle of raising money, requiring private investors to contribute alongside public funds. \u201cWe injected back then a few hundred millions of shekels into those companies,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The measure, he believes, protected about 250 startups. \u201cBy that, I believe we saved something like 250 companies, which are probably the diamonds of this cohort of companies that will create the next waves of growth for Israeli equity, I think.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe we saved something like 250 companies, which are probably the diamonds of this cohort of companies<\/p>\n
For Bin, the arc from emergency intervention to quantum ambition is not a contradiction. It is the same assignment: safeguard the ecosystem in the present while giving it room to build the future. The quantum center, the AI partnerships, the startup runway fund and the appeal for dynamic regulation all rest on a conviction that Israel\u2019s advantage will not come from standing still.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The record he leaves behind is one of long-range ambition tempered by crisis management: building capacity for quantum computing and new energy while moving quickly to shield startups caught in war and economic disruption. Whether Israel\u2019s next breakthroughs come from a laboratory, a regional data center, or one of the companies helped through its most difficult days, Bin\u2019s successor will inherit an ecosystem already positioned for the next technological race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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