While global attention remains focused on Nvidia’s plans for a massive new campus in northern Israel, the tech giant is also significantly expanding its presence in the country’s south. The U.S.-based chipmaker is tripling its office space in the city of Be'er Sheva and preparing to recruit hundreds of employees in the coming months, the company confirmed.
Nvidia is slated to move its Be'er Sheva research and development center to a new 3,000-square-meter facility during the first half of 2026. The new site will be located in the Gav-Yam Negev High-Tech Park, adjacent to Ben-Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center. The tech park already houses major firms, including Microsoft, Elbit Systems, and several units of the IDF's Communications Corps.
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Nvidia's Be'er Sheva research and development center
(Illustration: Moshe Zur Architects)
According to sources familiar with the matter, Nvidia’s decision to expand in Be'er Sheva was made prior to the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and would have proceeded regardless of the war. Nvidia has maintained a relatively small presence in the Be'er Sheva tech park since acquiring Mellanox Technologies in 2019 for $7 billion. That space, about 1,000 square meters, primarily employed computer science students from Ben-Gurion University, many of whom later moved to company offices in central or northern Israel.
The new Be'er Sheva facility will employ not only students but also full-time chip developers and hardware and software engineers. It will be Nvidia’s southernmost location in Israel, joining existing development hubs in Yokneam (the company’s Israeli headquarters), Tel Aviv, Raanana, Mevo Carmel and Tel Hai.
Nvidia now employs more than 5,000 people in Israel, making it one of the country’s largest high-tech employers. Since acquiring Mellanox, its local workforce has more than doubled. The company is currently evaluating proposals to establish a large-scale campus in northern Israel, near Yokneam, with an estimated investment of several billion shekels.
In July, Nvidia issued a request for proposals for land parcels between 70 and 120 dunams (approximately 17 to 30 acres) for the northern campus. The company has received dozens of offers from across the country and is expected to decide on a final location in the coming months. If built, the site would be the largest tech campus in Israel, surpassing those of Microsoft, Intel and leading domestic firms like Wix and Mobileye.
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Senior Nvidia Israel officials touring Be'er Sheva, last month
(Photo: Be'er Sheva municipality)
In addition to its Be'er Sheva plans, Nvidia has significantly expanded its presence in Tel Aviv over the past year. The company now leases 18 floors in the Rubinstein Twin Towers, doubling its office space there.
Nvidia is also building one of the largest server farms in Israel, located in Ramot Menashe in the north, covering 10,000 square meters at a cost of $500 million.
The company, now the world’s most valuable publicly traded firm on the Nasdaq with a market capitalization of $4.5 trillion, has seen its stock rise 34% since the beginning of the year and more than 1,200% over the past five years. Its growth has been driven by surging global demand for AI chips.
In 2024, amid the Gaza war, Nvidia deepened its activity in Israel with the acquisitions of two AI startups, Deci and Run:AI, for a combined total of $1 billion. Israel is now Nvidia’s second-largest development center outside the United States, with key products developed locally.
Highlighting the site’s importance, Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang recently emailed employees following the release of Avinatan Or, an Nvidia engineer who had been held hostage in Gaza for nearly two years. “I am profoundly moved and deeply grateful to share that, just moments ago, our colleague, Avinatan Or, was released to the Red Cross in Gaza,” Huang wrote. “After two unimaginable years in Hamas captivity, Avinatan has come home.”
Confirming the expansion, Amit Krig, Nvidia’s senior vice president and head of Israeli development operations, said: “The expansion of our Be'er Sheva development center reflects our commitment to reach the best engineers—wherever they are.”