Key Findings
- The report defines the Compact as a civilian technology instrument that should complement, not duplicate or subsume, the existing U.S.–Israel security assistance relationship and 2028 MOU renewal process.
- Its central argument is that AI sovereignty for the United States and close allies should be understood as mutual complementarity, with allied nations contributing specialized capabilities to a shared trusted ecosystem.
- The Compact organizes cooperation around six priority domains: artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced energy, quantum, bioconvergence, and critical materials, with a cross-cutting layer for implementation and access.
- The AI pillar proposes an Agentic Defense Foundry and sovereign data partnership to address machine-speed cyber defense and governed access to Israeli operational and health data assets.
- The semiconductor pillar emphasizes Israeli architecture-level innovation, including chip design, photonics, packaging, memory, and hardware-algorithm co-design, rather than wafer-scale fabrication capacity alone.
Overview
This report proposes a U.S.–Israel Strategic Technology Compact as a civilian technology cooperation instrument distinct from, but complementary to, existing security assistance arrangements. It argues that allied technology sovereignty should be built through mutual complementarity rather than national self-sufficiency, pairing U.S. scale, capital, laboratories, and procurement power with Israeli strengths in constrained AI deployment, semiconductor design, advanced materials, quantum systems, bioconvergence, and critical materials processing. The report says its recommendations were developed through a Track 1.5 working group process convened by SCSP and MIND Israel with participants from government, industry, academia, and civil society in both countries. It sets out initiatives across artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced energy, quantum, bioconvergence, and critical materials, supported by cross-cutting mechanisms for national-lab access, procurement eligibility, regulatory recognition, export-control coordination, and pilot-to-deployment translation. Its principal proposals include an AI-cybersecurity foundry, a sovereign data governance framework, semiconductor architecture and Pax Silica feasibility work, a fusion materials research program, quantum sensing and participation frameworks, a bioconvergence research initiative, and clean critical-materials processing pathways. The financing architecture calls for at least $500 million per year from each government over a 10-year agreement, intended to mobilize more than $10 billion in strategic technology investment. The report frames the compact as a policy template for trusted allied technology cooperation amid competition with China.
Artificial intelligence is rewriting the logic of national power.
SCSP
Recommendations
- Formally sign the U.S.–Israel Technology Alliance MOU for 10 years as a civilian-led compact. Establish a baseline public funding commitment of at least $500 million per year from each government.
- Designate senior institutional owners on both sides and establish a Tech Alliance Steering Committee. Support the committee with a bilateral Program Office with a clear mandate and independent reporting cycle.
- Build the capital architecture by authorizing the blended financing stack needed to mobilize investment. This includes anchor commitments, expanded bilateral grant mechanisms, and strategic investment vehicles.
- Assign clear scope, delivery mechanisms, timelines, and named lead institutions to each core initiative. Launch a first-wave portfolio of actions that can begin under existing authority.
From the report
Documents
Publication
Published by the Special Competitive Studies Project. Co-publishers and external authors, where they exist, are credited in the byline above.