US tech giant Nvidia could build massive new facility in northern Israel near Lebanon border

Officials from the American multinational tech giant Nvidia said they're willing to consider proposals from the Israeli government to build a new campus in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, according to a report published on Tuesday by Haaretz.

Nvidia's market value recently hit $3.92 trillion, leading analysts to predict it could become the company worth the most money ever in history.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli government have proposed to give Nvidia the status of "anchor plant" if it builds its new campus — which is already planned to open in Israel — in the country's north, where tens of thousands of Israelis were displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and whose residents were hesitant to return even after the cease-fire came into effect in November.

The bigger picture

How American tech giants fuel Israel's wars (and pretend not to know about it)

Nvidia already has a facility in Yokneam, near Haifa, but the Israeli government is trying to convince it to open its new facility in either the industrial areas of Tefen, about fifteen kilometers from the Blue Line, in northern Israel's central region, or Nahariya, eight kilometers south of Naqoura, Lebanon's southernmost coastal village.

This project could attract "thousands of top-tier employees to the North" of the country, Haaretz reported, an area that still hasn't recovered from the war with Hezbollah.

According to a survey conducted by Israel's state comptroller and published in June, 54 percent of the 60,000 residents of northern Israel who fled or were evacuated during the fighting said there was a high chance they would never return.

The Israeli government and the administration in charge of reconstruction in the North, called the "Tnufa," could engage in exclusive negotiations with the company if it settles in northern Israel and offer it significant benefits worth several billion shekels in additional subsidies, as well as much larger tax breaks for employees who move to the North.

New campus

The government's offer to Nvidia was made after it was reported that the company was seeking land for a gigantic new campus. The assumption was that Nvidia wanted its two campuses in Israel to be close to each other, which seemed to tip the scales in favor of construction near the northern border. But Nvidia confirmed with Haaretz that it would consider any proposal made by the government.

The Israeli government "strongly hopes that Nvidia will decide to build its campus in the North, and not in Yokneam," Haaretz reports. Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat contacted the company on Sunday to discuss the matter, while the head of the Tnufa administration, Einav Peretz, is among those trying to promote the proposal to the company.