The Israeli opportunity to create its own “Genesis Mission”

President Trump signed an executive order launching the “Genesis Mission” - a large-scale national project for research and development in the field of artificial intelligence. According to the order, among other things, the U.S. government will share information with industry, academia, and the private sector; it will ensure that regulation does not slow innovation led by the private sector; and one of the mission’s goals is to reduce the rising energy bills paid by American consumers. The United States clearly understands that artificial intelligence is not just a technology – it is national infrastructure, and whoever builds it well today will have a huge advantage in the future.

American media outlets are already comparing the “Genesis Mission” to the “Manhattan Project” - the groundbreaking research initiative that led to the development of the first atomic bombs. This comparison reflects the enormous economic, technological, and scientific potential that Americans see in the government’s commitment to such a project, which is expected to deliver a leap forward in science, technology, energy, and other fields.

History teaches us that large-scale national projects such as the Genesis Mission, the Manhattan Project, or the Apollo Program that landed the first human on the moon, play a critical role. These types of initiatives can accelerate an entire ecosystem forward through a state decision that connects science, resources, industry, and academia. Typically, such projects generate ripple effects that bring additional positive impacts to the economy as a whole, including a new generation of researchers, the strengthening of research institutions, and the creation of infrastructure that supports companies built around them.

For all these reasons, and many others, Israel would benefit from initiating and leading a major national technological project in artificial intelligence - one that would push forward the local innovation ecosystem and create new opportunities that do not yet exist in Israel. Of course, Israel cannot lead a project on the scale of the American one; our resources and capabilities are limited. Therefore, we will need to find a project sized appropriately for the Israeli ecosystem, and there are quite a few such opportunities.

It will be important to focus on areas where Israel has a relative advantage and a combination of expertise, industry, and research. These areas can include advanced energy, computing technologies, materials, electro-optical systems, computational biology, and more. Fields involving interactions between AI and the physical world do require massive, long-term investment. But precisely in these areas, companies can emerge and entire industries will be built around them.

Beyond concentrating resources in areas where Israel could achieve global leadership through a national AI-era project, cross-sector collaboration is essential. Collaboration across government, industry, and academia is critical, including access to high-performance computing, open research datasets, structured access to non-sensitive government data, and research infrastructure adapted to startup needs. The United States achieves this through its national laboratories and close cooperation between the government and big tech companies. Israel can build its own version suited to its size.

Additionally, Israel should build computing capacity - not only more data centers, but also research-grade computing infrastructure that will be accessible to scientists and early-stage companies. In the coming years, the gap between those who have access to high-performance computing and high-quality data and those who do not, will be one of the key determinants of success or failure.

A national technological project has a clear roadmap: to leap forward in the current era, we need massive research infrastructure, access to reliable data, collaboration between government bodies and academia, and strong support from industry. National projects can also fail due to cumbersome bureaucracy, slow decision-making, resource fragmentation, and an inability to move at the pace required in the face of rapid technological change.

Therefore, vision alone is not enough - execution must include flexibility. Those who understand this and adapt accordingly will advance quickly, and those who do not will simply be left behind.

Israel should not try to replicate the American project but rather build its own version - one suited to its scale, resources, and ecosystem capabilities. Those who seize the window of opportunity now will become a significant technological force in the coming decade and beyond.

Lior Handelsman is a General Partner at Grove Ventures.