Two Israeli universities rank among top 30 global producers of AI talent, startups

Two Israeli institutions — Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University — have earned spots among the world’s top 30 universities for churning out talent, research and entrepreneurship in artificial intelligence, according to a new global index.

The Technion was placed 25th and Tel Aviv University 28th in the AI Production Capacity index of 50 academic institutions, compiled by US-based AI communications firm 5W and released last week.

The top three institutions in the global index were Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University, followed by UC Berkeley and China’s Tsinghua University.

Graduates of the top four universities accounted for 54 percent of the technical leadership behind leading AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

The index’s ranking is based on six equally weighted categories, including research output, AI programs, startup creation, computing infrastructure and links to frontier AI companies.

The report attributed the performance of the Technion and Tel Aviv University to the close collaboration between academia, industry and the country’s technology ecosystem, alongside a talent pipeline coming out of Israel’s military elite technology and intelligence units.

“Both maintain dense ties to Nvidia’s Israeli R&D operations in Yokneam — the semiconductor company’s largest engineering site outside the US — Intel’s Israeli operations in Kiryat Gat and Haifa, and the alumni pipeline from IDF Unit 8200,” the report said. “Compute infrastructure is the only structural constraint.”

The Technion is also a major provider of technological talent for Israel-based R&D centers of global tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Israel has talent and a track record of innovation, but is seen as falling short of much-needed investment in AI infrastructure, including computing power and chips. That could put the country at a disadvantage as other major economies, including its neighbors, are pushing ahead in the global technological arms race.

“Despite the dramatic disparity in resources between the Technion and leading American universities and other top institutions worldwide, the Technion has secured a place among the world’s leading universities,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “Technion researchers were among the pioneers of machine learning, helping lay the foundations for leadership in AI as a whole.”

“AI tools are now essential in the workplace, and we ensure that our students acquire these skills alongside a strong foundation in mathematics, science, and engineering,” stated Sivan.

In the category of AI entrepreneurship, or the number of university graduates that go on to found AI startups, the Technion ranked eighth, globally outperforming some Ivy League universities, including Harvard University.

Overall, US universities accounted for 25 of the 50 top institutions, while the UK had four, China had three, and Singapore had two on the list.