Israel will become a major player in transportation technologies, Netanyahu said Thursday as he met with senior managers from the American chip maker Intel.

By: TPS

“Seven years ago I said that Israel will be the leading, global power in cybersecurity and that has happened. And now I’m saying that Israel is and will be an even greater force in global technology of transportation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at meeting with top managers at tech giant Intel.

“I think we’re proving in our cooperation that the future belongs to those who innovate. Intel is an innovation company, Israel is an innovation nation. The partnership with Intel is tremendous. We look forward to expanding it even more. And I want to thank you for doing good things,” Netanyahu intoned.

We recognize in Israel good things when we see them,” he added.

Intel has invested some $38 billion in Israel since it came to the country in 1974. The semiconductor giant has some 11,000 employees in Israel and exports around $3.6 billion worth of goods and services per year.

In 2017, the company acquired Jerusalem based autonomous care systems developer Mobileye for just over $15 billion

“Intel has invested $38 billion – It is an amazing investment with amazing result,” Netanyahu said. “I think you were among the first to recognize the great potential of Israel and the great potential of our partnership.”

“Now everybody invests in Israel today with R & D but you’re different. Because you’re not just investing in R & D, you’re investing also in production and export. And that is obviously very, very important for Israel. But we think the partnership between the Israeli companies and Intel is enormous,” the prime minister concluded.