US tech park in Negev may have nuclear power plant

Israel and the US have reached understandings on the construction of a large technological park in the south of the country, as part of a strategic cooperation agreement on AI signed in Jerusalem this month. The MOU, signed by the head of the National AI Directorate, Brig.- Gen. (Res.) Erez Eskel, and the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, reveals an ambitious plan to allocate 16,000 dunams (4,000 acres) to the US. The park, which will be constructed in the Negev or in the Gaza Strip border area, will be called “Fort Foundry One”.

Under the MOU, the text of which has reached “Globes”, Israel will grant the US a 99-year lease on the land. Although the area will remain under Israeli sovereignty, day-to-day running will be by the US which will provide most of the investment. US and Israeli technology companies will work side by side in the park, with the aim of setting up a global center for chip production, advanced computing, and AI development.

A nuclear power plant?

One of the surprising details to emerge from the discussions on the agreement relates to the energy infrastructure. The huge power demands of data centers and AI computer systems require a large, stable energy solution, and the possibility arose of constructing a nuclear power plant at the site. This is a very complicated issue. Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows the construction of nuclear reactors for civilian purposes, but the US is.

This could lead to a unique model in which the reactor operates under US regulation and supervision, despite being located on Israeli territory. The official MOU remains more vague, and refers to a high-intensity energy infrastructure.

The agreement also includes an Israeli commitment to expedited regulation. Licensing and permits processes for the park site will not take more than 120 days, a much shorter timetable than the normal standard in Israel for projects of this size.

The joint initiative is part of a broad international framework launched by the Trump administration called “Pax Silica”, a coalition of seven leading countries in technology, the aim of which is to secure supply chains of semiconductors and AI. Israel joined the initiative in December, and was the first country to sign a bilateral agreement with the US in this framework. Among the other countries in the coalition are Qatar and the UAE. Helberg himself landed in Israel after signing similar agreements in Doha and Abu Dhabi. He said that Israel was an “anchor partner” in the effort, thanks to its technological ecosystem and its ability to produce “asymmetric results” in relation to its geographical size.

Israel concedes link between US aid and tariffs relief

Package of agreements

The technology agreement is a mainstay of a broad package of economic agreements being formulated between Israel and the US on which negotiations are at their height. First and foremost is the tariffs issue. After President Trump imposed a 17% tariff on imports from Israel, the Israeli government has been working to obtain reliefs and exemptions for certain sectors. The bargaining over the tariffs is shot through with broader geopolitical concerns, from the efforts to restrain Iran to advancing normalization with Saudi Arabia to future arrangements in the Gaza Strip.

On his latest visit to the US, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the strategic goal of ending US military aid to Israel within a decade. The new Israeli model, replacing unilateral aid with joint investment and projects, sits well with the AI agreement. Instead of receiving money to buy US arms, Israel is proposing collaboration on technological development that will benefit both sides. The MOU covers collaboration on AI, semiconductors, robotics, space, energy, and materials sciences.

“AI with no agendas”

The MOU contains a special section on the kind of AI to be developed at the new site. The two countries commit to development of AI with no ideological bias or social engineering agendas. The formulation faithfully reflects the Trump administration’s criticism of the Big Tech companies and what it perceives as inbuilt political bias in these systems. The document states explicitly that the LLMs (large language models) must be true to users’ enquiries and not ideologically manipulative.

At the infrastructure level, the project ties in with the IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor), which is meant to serve as a main artery for data and energy connectivity for the technology park. It is important to stress, however, that at this stage, in legal terms, it is a matter of a declaration of intent and not a binding agreement. The document itself states that it creates no legal rights or obligations, and that any legislation required for its implementation will be subject to local legal and parliamentary procedures.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 26, 2026.

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