Target: Google LLC (subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.)
Domain: Digital Forensics (V-DIG)
Date: 2026-05-01
Scope: Cloud infrastructure, AI/ML provision, surveillance technology, digital sovereignty, Israeli tech ecosystem, R&D footprint, acquisitions, civil society scrutiny.
No public evidence identified that Google LLC has procured Check Point, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Verint, Nice, Claroty, or comparable Israeli-origin cybersecurity or analytics software for integration into its own enterprise infrastructure at a scale or strategic depth meriting documentation under this category. Google develops the majority of its own security tooling internally (BeyondCorp, Mandiant).
Note: Alphabet’s CapitalG growth equity fund led a $140 million investment round in Salt Security (Israeli API cybersecurity startup) and is in reported talks to co-invest in VAST Data (Israeli AI infrastructure) alongside NVIDIA — the latter investment reported but not confirmed as completed.1 These are investment relationships (outbound capital), recorded in the Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint section below.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin — Alphabet shareholding: Page and Brin retain Class B supervoting shares in Alphabet, giving them effective voting control of the corporation despite reduced economic stakes. As of Alphabet’s most recent proxy, Page held approximately 5.9% of economic equity but ~26% of voting power; Brin held approximately 5.7% economic / ~25% voting power. They remain the controlling shareholders of Alphabet Inc. in the governance sense.28
Personal investments in Israeli tech: No public evidence identified of Larry Page or Sergey Brin holding personal or family-office equity stakes in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-technology firms. Page’s known investments concentrate in aerospace, life sciences, and autonomous systems; no Israeli defense-tech investment has been publicly reported.
Sundar Pichai (CEO): No public evidence identified of Sundar Pichai holding personal investments in Israeli cyber, surveillance, or military-tech firms.
John Hennessy (Chair, Alphabet board): No public evidence identified of personal investments in Israeli military/surveillance technology.
Eric Schmidt (former CEO/Chair): Schmidt left the Alphabet board in 2019 and is not a current controlling principal. Schmidt Futures has funded Israeli university research partnerships (Weizmann Institute, Technion) as educational/research grants rather than equity investments in Israeli defense-tech. Schmidt’s post-Google defense-tech investments are primarily in US defense-tech firms (Rebellion Defense, Shield AI). No public evidence confirmed of Eric Schmidt personally holding equity stakes in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-technology companies.
CapitalG and GV (Alphabet Ventures): These are Alphabet corporate investment vehicles, not personal principal investments. Their Israeli-tech investments (Salt Security, AI21 Labs, VAST Data talks) are recorded in the Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint section.
Finding: No public evidence identified of current controlling principals (Page, Brin, Pichai, Hennessy) holding personal investments in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-tech firms. The investment relationships are held at the corporate/fund level (CapitalG, GV), not the personal principal level.
Not applicable at material level for Israeli-origin software procurement in Google’s own enterprise stack.
No public evidence identified.
Google Photos — IDF Use in Gaza (2024, ongoing): Reporting by The Intercept (April 2024) and corroborated by +972 Magazine and NPR established that the Israeli military deployed Google Photos’ built-in facial recognition function as part of a mass surveillance operation across Gaza.2 Israeli military intelligence officers uploaded a database of known individuals to Google Photos and used the platform’s search-by-face function to identify and track Palestinians. An anonymous Israeli official confirmed to The Intercept that Google Photos “worked better than any of the alternative facial recognition tech” deployed in this programme.2 The operation was described as targeting alleged Hamas combatants involved in the October 7 attack, but expanded to broad civilian surveillance, resulting in mass arrests of civilians including poet Mosab Abu Toha, who was subsequently released without charges.2
When The Intercept asked Google whether this use was consistent with Google Photos’ terms of service — which prohibit use to cause “serious and immediate harm” — company spokesperson Joshua Cruz declined to address the substance of the question.2 Google has not publicly disclosed any steps taken to prevent or address this use of its platform.
Corsight Technologies — Parallel Deployment in IDF Gaza Operation: The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre documented a report finding that both Google Photos and Corsight Technologies’ dedicated facial recognition system were independently deployed by Israeli military intelligence in Gaza for mass identification operations.25 Corsight is an Israeli facial recognition company; the two systems are described as complementary rather than integrated — Google Photos provided the accessible commercial tool while Corsight provided a more specialised biometric pipeline. No ownership, investment, or partnership relationship between Google and Corsight has been identified in public sources. The connection is that both systems were independently deployed in the same Israeli military operation.
Project Nimbus AI Capabilities — Facial Detection (2021-ongoing): The Intercept reported in July 2022 that Project Nimbus services marketed to the Israeli government include facial detection, automated image categorization, object tracking, and sentiment analysis.3 Training materials confirmed Google briefed Israeli government officials on the Cloud Vision API’s ability to identify faces, landmarks, and emotions in images, and on AutoML, which allows Israel to train custom machine learning models on its own government data — including offline/edge deployments that fall outside Google’s monitoring.3
Sentiment Analysis (Project Nimbus): Project Nimbus training materials documented Google marketing sentiment analysis capabilities — tools that claim to assess the emotional content of pictures, speech, and writing — to Israeli government customers.3 An engineer at a Nimbus webinar confirmed it was technically possible to use the Google infrastructure “to train a model to identify how likely it is that a certain person is lying, given the sound of their own voice.”3
Palantir Foundry via Nimbus marketplace: The Intercept reported in May 2024 that Project Nimbus establishes a digital marketplace providing Israeli government users — including military users — access to Palantir Foundry, a data analysis tool used by militaries internationally for targeting operations.4 Google facilitates Palantir’s access to Israeli military and government customers through this marketplace structure. In January 2024, Palantir entered a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defense specifically to support its “war effort.”4
YouTube’s content moderation practices during the Gaza conflict have been subject to documented civil-society investigation. Human Rights Watch and 7amleh (Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media) published documentation in 2024 of systematic content removal and account restrictions affecting Palestinian journalists and activists on YouTube. Access Now co-signed letters calling on platforms including Google/YouTube to ensure Palestinian content is not disproportionately suppressed. Google/YouTube disputed characterisations of bias, citing consistent application of Community Guidelines.33
Finding: Palestinian content moderation concerns on YouTube are documented in civil-society reporting (2024) but constitute a platform governance issue rather than a technology-provision relationship.
Tel Aviv Cloud Region (me-west1) — Launched October 2022: Google activated its first local cloud region in Israel in October 2022 as part of the Project Nimbus contract requirements.5 The region — designated me-west1 — is physically located in Tel Aviv and operates under Israeli sovereignty and law. The Google Cloud Blog announced the launch of the Israel region as delivering “low-latency for users in the area” with “a full complement of Google Cloud services.”5
The local region architecture ensures Israeli government data, including sensitive state and military data, remains within Israeli borders, meeting Israeli data sovereignty requirements. Google established this infrastructure specifically in response to the Nimbus tender requirement.
me-west1 — Commercial Customer Expansion: Beyond government/military users, the me-west1 region serves a mixed commercial-government customer base. Teva Pharmaceuticals was named in the Project Nimbus procurement framework as a required cloud purchaser.431 Israeli financial institutions (Bank Hapoalim, Leumi) have been reported in Israeli tech press as Google Cloud customers with data residency in me-west1. Israeli health sector organisations have been cited in Google Cloud case studies as me-west1 customers. Israeli startups and technology companies across the ecosystem use Google Cloud infrastructure, with me-west1 providing local latency benefits.31 The significance for the data-exposure analysis is that the me-west1 region’s customer base extends well beyond government/military users, meaning Israeli law’s potential reach to data hosted in the region covers a broad commercial population.
Project Nimbus (2021-ongoing): Google and Amazon Web Services jointly won a $1.2 billion Israeli government tender in April 2021 to provide an “all-encompassing cloud solution” for “the government, the defense establishment and others,” per the Israeli Finance Ministry announcement.6 Google’s share of the contract, based on internal projections, was estimated to generate $3.3 billion in revenue between 2023 and 2027 — serving not just the government but the Israeli military, financial sector, and corporations including Teva Pharmaceuticals.6
The contract includes provisions explicitly stating that Google is “not permitted to restrict the types of services” that Israeli government and military entities can access, and that Google must “notify the Israeli government as early as possible” of any legal scrutiny related to the contract.7 Internal documents reviewed by The Intercept indicate this structure would prevent Google from complying with potential international legal orders regarding Israel’s use of the technology.7
Israeli state-owned weapons manufacturers Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are named in the Nimbus procurement documents as parties required to purchase Google Cloud services if they need cloud computing.4
Expanded MoD Access (2023-2024): Following the October 2023 Hamas attack and Israeli military campaign in Gaza:
– November 2023: The Israeli Ministry of Defence requested emergency expanded access to Google’s Vertex AI platform. Internal documents show Google employees escalated the request, fearing the MoD would turn to Amazon if denied. Google granted access.8
– March 27, 2024: A draft contract showed Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defence over $1 million for consulting assistance to expand Cloud access to “multiple [IDF] units” and their access to automation technologies.8
– Throughout 2024: Multiple additional MoD requests for expanded AI platform access were processed by Google.8
– November 2024: A Google employee pushed internally for IDF access to Gemini, Google’s flagship generative AI model for document processing and audio analysis.8
Project Nimbus — 2025 Status: Based on available evidence through the training knowledge cutoff of April 2026, Project Nimbus continued operating without any publicly announced modification, restriction, or termination. The contract, originally announced in 2021 with a projected 2023–2027 revenue period for Google, remained in force. Haaretz reported continued Israeli government satisfaction with Nimbus services through 2025 with no reports of service degradation, access restrictions, or contract renegotiation.24 The Intercept’s May 2025 investigation 7 — published ten months after the ICJ Advisory Opinion — described the Classified Team structure and contract architecture as currently operational, without reporting any post-ICJ AO modification.
The Project Nimbus contract was explicitly designed to protect the Israeli state from “international digital sanctions, data embargoes, or cable severing” by establishing sovereign, locally-hosted cloud infrastructure.7 Internal Google assessments noted the contract could require Google to “Reject, Appeal, and Resist Foreign Government Access Requests” — effectively weaponising Google’s data architecture against third-party legal accountability.7 A Business for Social Responsibility consultant specifically recommended withholding AI and machine learning tools from the Israeli military; Google disregarded this recommendation before signing.7 No public evidence has been identified that Google commissioned a follow-up human rights due diligence review post-October 2023 or post-July 2024.
Google’s commercial products in settlements: Google’s consumer products — Search, Gmail, Maps/Waze, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Play — are available commercially throughout Israel, including in Israeli settlements in the West Bank (Area C), as they operate on the Israeli telecommunications infrastructure which extends into settlement areas. This reflects passive commercial availability rather than targeted settlement provision, but means Google services are operative within internationally recognised occupied territory.
Google Maps and West Bank: Google Maps depicts Israeli settlements in the West Bank using Israeli naming conventions and as connected territory for navigation purposes, a matter that has been the subject of advocacy-group complaints. This is a mapping/data classification issue rather than a discrete technology contract.
Project Nimbus — Settlement nexus: The Project Nimbus contract is with the Israeli government and military. The Israeli Civil Administration (which administers settlements in Area C) is a military administration body. Whether Project Nimbus services extend to Civil Administration digital infrastructure is not publicly documented. No specific evidence identified of a discrete Nimbus contract component for settlement administration.
Waze in the West Bank: Waze provides navigation services throughout Israel and the West Bank, including routing through and around settlements. This is a product function of the Google/Waze service on Israeli infrastructure, not a discrete contract.
UN OHCHR settlement database: Google/Alphabet does not appear in the published OHCHR database of enterprises (~120 companies) involved in settlement activity (HRC res. 31/36 / 53/25). The database focuses on companies with physical presence in settlements or providing settlement-specific infrastructure. Google’s primary Israel nexus is cloud/AI services to the state and military, not direct settlement operations. Live verification against the latest database iteration is required.
Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO): DBIO’s published lists use a methodology focused on companies providing goods and services to Israeli settlements including financial services, construction materials, logistics, retail, telecommunications, and utilities. Google’s Israel nexus — predominantly cloud/AI services to the central government and military, and general consumer product availability — does not align with DBIO’s settlement-infrastructure methodology. Based on training knowledge, Google does not appear in the DBIO 2024 primary named company list. This is a methodological distinction, not an exculpatory finding — the DBIO scope is narrower than the V-DIG Settlement Nexus rubric. Live verification of the 2024 and any 2025 DBIO report required.
Israeli R&D access to engineering systems: Google operates approximately 2,000 engineers in Tel Aviv and Haifa working on core product areas including search algorithms, AI/ML, YouTube features, cloud computing, and chip development.10 Following the completion of the Wiz acquisition in March 2026, this footprint has expanded materially — Wiz employed approximately 900+ people globally at acquisition, with a substantial portion based in Israel, bringing estimated total Israeli-based Google engineering headcount to approximately 2,500+ across the combined entities.11 These engineers operate under Israeli employment law and are physically located in Israeli jurisdiction.
Google Israel Ltd. — Legal Structure and Intelligence Law Exposure: Google’s Israeli operations are conducted through Google Israel Ltd., registered with the Israeli Companies Authority, operating as a service/R&D subsidiary of Google LLC. Section 11 of Israel’s Intelligence Community Law 2017 requires Israeli entities to cooperate with Israeli intelligence agencies. The law’s application to foreign-owned subsidiaries operating in Israel is a matter of legal debate; however, Google Israel Ltd., as an Israeli-registered company employing Israeli nationals, operates within the structural scope of this law. The extent to which Section 11 has been invoked against Google Israel Ltd. specifically is not publicly known.36
Android — Location Data and Legal Process: Android’s location services infrastructure collects granular GPS and Wi-Fi positioning data from devices globally. Google’s standard legal-process response framework creates a pathway for Israeli authorities to access Israeli-user data (including location history) through lawful court orders under Israeli law or MLAT procedures. This is structurally consistent with all jurisdictions in which Google operates and is not a specially constructed Israeli data-access pathway. Google’s Transparency Report confirms Israel as a data-requesting government; specific request volumes and compliance rates are publicly accessible in the Transparency Report archives.34
me-west1 region: Data stored in the me-west1 region is subject to Israeli law, including potential compelled access under Israeli security legislation. The Project Nimbus contract explicitly ensures Israeli government data remains within Israeli borders.57
Finding: The primary data-exposure pathways are (a) Israeli R&D and Wiz personnel with system access operating under Israeli legal jurisdiction, including structural exposure under the Intelligence Community Law 2017; (b) data stored in the me-west1 region subject to Israeli law; and (c) standard legal-process requests by Israeli authorities for user data, documented in Google’s Transparency Report. No evidence identified that general consumer data (Gmail, Search, YouTube) is specifically routed through Israeli infrastructure for the global user population.
The ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 found Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories unlawful and called on all states and international organisations to cease conduct facilitating the occupation.26 The ICC issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in November 2024.27 Both instruments constitute formal constructive notice to all entities operating with knowledge of them.
The constructive-notice record now includes: (a) BSR internal human rights due diligence recommendation, pre-2021, warning against AI provision to Israeli military — generated by Google’s own commissioned contractor and overridden 7; (b) The Intercept investigations (2022, 2024, 2025) 347; (c) ICJ Advisory Opinion, 19 July 2024 26; (d) ICC arrest warrants, November 2024 27; (e) whistleblower SEC complaint, reported February 2026 9 — spanning a five-year period with no documented Google policy response to any of these instruments.
The existing documentary record shows the following activity after 19 July 2024:
– July 2024: Google Cloud staff responded to a request from an account connected to IDF contractor CloudEx, assisting with making Gemini AI more reliable at identifying drones, armoured vehicles, and soldiers in aerial footage — occurring contemporaneously with the ICJ Advisory Opinion.9
– November 2024: A Google employee pushed internally for IDF access to Gemini for document processing and audio analysis.8
– Ongoing 2024: Multiple additional MoD requests for expanded AI platform access were processed.8
No public evidence has been identified that Google took steps to modify, restrict, or terminate Project Nimbus military access following either the 19 July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion or the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants. Google’s public characterisation of Nimbus as not covering “sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services” has been maintained consistently, with no public announcement of any post-ICJ AO or post-ICC policy review identified.
Documented in the Surveillance and Cloud sections above (Project Nimbus, MoD Vertex AI access, MoD Gemini access, $1M+ consulting contract with MoD, March 2024). The IMOD is a confirmed, active Google Cloud customer with escalating access to AI and machine learning capabilities from 2021 to at least November 2024.
“Classified Team” of Israeli nationals: Internal Google documents reviewed by The Intercept (May 2025) disclosed that Google operates a “Classified Team” of Israeli nationals within Google who participate in “joint drills and scenarios” with Israeli government security agencies — cooperation described internally as not currently provided to any other country.7
Gemini AI / Drone Footage Analysis (2024): A whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC in August 2024 (reported by The Washington Post in February 2026) alleged that in July 2024, Google’s cloud division received a customer support request from an account connected to CloudEx, an IDF contractor, using an IDF-linked email address.9 The request asked for help making Google’s Gemini AI more reliable at identifying objects — specifically drones, armored vehicles, and soldiers — in aerial video footage. Google Cloud staff responded by making suggestions and conducting internal tests.9 Google disputed the characterisation, stating the account had “less than a couple hundred dollars of monthly spend” and therefore the assistance was not “meaningful,” but did not deny the substance of the assistance provided.9
Google possessed its own internal human rights due diligence finding — from a Business for Social Responsibility contractor it commissioned — warning against AI tool provision to the Israeli military prior to signing the Nimbus contract. Google overrode this recommendation. This internal notice predates all subsequent international legal instruments (ICJ AO, ICC warrants) and represents a privately constructed constructive notice that Google’s own processes generated. No public evidence identifies any subsequent BSR or equivalent assessment being commissioned to review the situation post-October 2023 or post-ICJ AO.7
Mandiant (acquired September 2022 for $5.4 billion): Mandiant is a cybersecurity and threat intelligence firm. Prior to acquisition, Mandiant/FireEye had a commercial presence in Israel and maintained a regional office, providing threat intelligence and incident response services to Israeli commercial enterprises and government clients. No public evidence identified of Mandiant holding specific contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defence or military intelligence agencies prior to the Google acquisition; Mandiant’s Israel-facing business was primarily commercial enterprise security and civilian government cybersecurity, consistent with its global commercial model. Post-acquisition, Google Cloud’s security portfolio — which includes Mandiant — is part of the Project Nimbus service catalog available to Israeli government and military customers. The Nimbus contract’s “all-encompassing” scope means Mandiant’s threat intelligence and incident response services would be accessible to IMOD customers through the Nimbus procurement vehicle, even if no standalone Mandiant-IMOD contract has been separately disclosed. Live verification of pre-acquisition Israeli government contracts through Mandiant’s pre-2022 annual reports and SEC filings is required.29
Wiz (acquired March 2026 for $32 billion): Wiz’s cloud security posture management capabilities are now accessible to Israeli government/military through the Nimbus procurement vehicle. No separate announced Wiz-IMOD contract has been identified in public sources. Google Cloud’s existing Nimbus government contract provides the procurement vehicle through which Wiz’s cloud security products could reach Israeli government/military customers without a separate announced contract.32 See also Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint section.
DeepMind (UK-based, wholly owned): No public evidence identified of DeepMind-specific work for Israeli state or military customers.
YouTube: YouTube operates in Israel as a standard commercial platform. No evidence of special government contracts. See Surveillance section for content moderation documentation.
Waymo: No Israeli nexus identified.
Verily: No Israeli nexus identified.
No public evidence identified of Google developing, selling, licensing, or maintaining offensive cyber-weapons or zero-day exploit tools for Israeli state actors.
Documented above. Vertex AI, Gemini, AutoML, Cloud Vision API, and sentiment analysis tools have been provided to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and broader Israeli government, with confirmed escalating military use from October 2023 onward.
AutoML and custom model training: Project Nimbus training documents confirmed that AutoML capabilities allow the Israeli government to train custom machine learning models on its own data — including for edge/offline deployments — without Google visibility into the resulting models or their applications.3 This includes potential training on surveillance, biometric, or signals intelligence data.
No public evidence identified that Google has specifically provided autonomous target generation systems to Israeli military or security forces. The drone footage assistance (see Defence section) was conducted through Gemini, a general-purpose AI platform, and is classified accordingly.
Note on domain boundary: Israel’s military AI targeting systems “Lavender” and “The Gospel” are Israeli-developed systems; no public evidence identifies Google technology as a direct input to either system’s core function. The IDF’s use of Google Photos for facial recognition and Google Cloud for data storage are general-purpose product deployments, not purpose-built autonomous targeting systems.
Google operates R&D facilities in both Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel. As of 2024, approximately 2,000 engineers work across these locations, covering cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, search algorithms, YouTube features, and chip development.10 Google’s Israel R&D centre has operated for over 20 years. Vice President of Engineering Yossi Matias led the Israel R&D operation from 2014 until 2024, when he transitioned to a global role at Google’s Mountain View headquarters.10
The March 2026 completion of the Wiz acquisition has materially expanded Google’s Israeli engineering footprint. Wiz employed approximately 900+ people globally at acquisition, with a substantial portion based in Israel; these personnel are now Google employees, bringing total Israeli-based Google engineering headcount to an estimated 2,500+ across the combined entities.11
Waze (2013) [pre-2020]: Google acquired Israeli navigation startup Waze for approximately $1.15–1.3 billion in 2013. Waze was founded in Israel and was incorporated into Google Maps.
SlickLogin (2014) [pre-2020]: Israeli multi-factor authentication startup; acquisition price undisclosed.
Velostrata (2018) [pre-2020]: Israeli cloud workload migration startup; integrated into Google Cloud’s migration tooling. Acquisition price undisclosed.35
Alooma (2019) [pre-2020]: Israeli data pipeline/ETL company; acquisition price undisclosed.
Elastifile (2019) [pre-2020]: Israeli cloud file storage company; approximately $200 million reported.
Wiz (acquisition completed March 2026): Google completed the acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity unicorn Wiz for $32 billion in March 2026 — the largest acquisition in Google’s history and the largest-ever exit for an Israeli technology company.11 Google announced the deal in March 2025 and received antitrust clearance from U.S. and EU regulators by February 2026.21 Wiz, founded in 2020, provides cloud security infrastructure services for enterprise customers globally, with approximately 40% of Fortune 100 companies among its customer base at the time of acquisition. All four Wiz co-founders — Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — are veterans of Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s elite signals intelligence and cyberwarfare unit.12 The founders previously co-founded Adallom, sold to Microsoft in 2015 for $320 million (note: Adallom was acquired by Microsoft, not Google), before founding Wiz. Wiz is now a wholly-owned Google subsidiary; Assaf Rappaport serves as VP/GM of Wiz within Google Cloud.
Wiz is being integrated into Google Cloud’s Security Command Center and broader cloud security portfolio, providing agentless security scanning across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).32 Israeli tech press (Calcalist, Globes) reported that Wiz’s Israeli sales and engineering teams were retained and that Google Cloud planned to leverage Wiz’s existing Israeli market relationships for expanded enterprise and government sales in Israel. No public evidence identified that Wiz held specific contracts with the Israeli MoD or military intelligence as a customer prior to acquisition; Wiz’s market focus was enterprise commercial customers. Under Israeli law, Unit 8200 alumni frequently maintain reserve military obligations; no public evidence identifies any specific classified or intelligence work being performed by the Wiz co-founders in their Google capacity.
CapitalG investments in Israeli startups: Alphabet’s CapitalG growth equity fund led a $140 million investment round in Salt Security (Israeli API cybersecurity company).1 CapitalG and NVIDIA are in reported talks to invest in VAST Data (Israeli AI infrastructure startup); this investment has not been confirmed as completed as of the training knowledge cutoff. VAST Data’s known investors include Goldman Sachs and 83North; a 2024 Series E round valued VAST Data at approximately $9.7 billion.30
AI21 Labs: Alphabet invested through its GV (Google Ventures) vehicle alongside NVIDIA in AI21 Labs (Israeli NLP/generative AI company, founded 2017, Tel Aviv), participating in the Series C ($64 million, 2021) and Series C2 ($170 million, 2023).23 AI21 Labs develops the Jurassic-series large language models and the Wordtune writing assistant. No public evidence identified of AI21 Labs contracts with Israeli military or intelligence agencies; the investment is a strategic/financial relationship in the Israeli AI ecosystem.
Other Israeli acquisitions (historical): Google has acquired multiple smaller Israeli startups including the above-documented entities. Correction note: Adallom was acquired by Microsoft (2015), not Google; it is referenced here only as the prior company co-founded by the Wiz co-founders.
Academic research partnerships (2011) [pre-2020]: Google signed a long-term research collaboration with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the Technion in 2011, funding approximately 20 research projects focused on internet economics and online auctions.13
Ben-Gurion University (announced 2023–2024, ongoing): Google and Ben-Gurion University announced a strategic collaboration on AI and cybersecurity, including joint research, student training, internships, and applications of AI in national infrastructure and industry.14 Ben-Gurion University’s cybersecurity research programme has historical links to Israeli military and intelligence research priorities, and the university houses INCAS (Israeli National Cyber Authority–affiliated research). No specific classified or military component of the Google–BGU collaboration has been publicly identified.
UN Special Rapporteur — A/HRC/59/23 (Albanese, 2 July 2025): The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, named Google/Alphabet in her 2025 report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” in the context of cloud and AI infrastructure provision to the Israeli government and military.20 The report discusses Project Nimbus as providing Israeli state and military actors with AI, cloud storage, and data-processing infrastructure that enables the administration and prosecution of the occupation, addresses the dual-use character of general-purpose cloud/AI platforms, and calls on technology companies to conduct enhanced human rights due diligence and to cease provision of services that materially support the occupation economy. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are the two primary cloud contractors named. Precise paragraph citations should be verified against the primary UN document.
UN A/HRC/52/59 (Albanese, 2023): Predecessor corporate accountability report in which Google and Amazon were named in the cloud/AI provision context, providing the foundational analysis carried forward into A/HRC/59/23.20
AFSC Investigate database: Lists Alphabet/Google as a company involved in arming and enabling Israeli military operations, citing Project Nimbus as the primary ground.15
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC): Has documented multiple Google-Israel technology relationships, including the Google Photos facial recognition use in Gaza, the Nimbus contract scope, whistleblower allegations, and the parallel deployment of Google and Corsight technologies in the IDF’s Gaza facial recognition programme.1625
Who Profits: Has documented Google’s involvement through Project Nimbus and the broader Israeli tech ecosystem, maintaining an individual company profile for Google specifically referencing Nimbus and the Israeli R&D presence.17
Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO): Based on available training knowledge, Google/Alphabet does not appear prominently in the DBIO primary named company lists, which focus on companies with direct settlement-infrastructure roles (telecoms, utilities, physical-goods providers). Google’s operational profile does not align with DBIO’s settlement-infrastructure methodology. This is a methodological distinction, not an exculpatory finding. Live verification against the 2024/2025 DBIO reports is required.
Amnesty International — “Automated Apartheid” (2023): Amnesty’s 2023 report on surveillance technology in the West Bank documents Israeli state use of commercial facial recognition at checkpoints throughout the West Bank. The primary vendors identified are Israeli firms (AnyVision/Oosto, Briefcam/Canon). The report does not specifically name Google as a vendor of checkpoint surveillance technology; it is contextually relevant to the Israeli surveillance technology ecosystem in which Google operates.
No Tech for Apartheid (NTFA): The worker-led No Tech for Apartheid campaign has organised Google employees against Project Nimbus since 2021. In April 2024, NTFA led sit-in protests at Google’s offices in New York, Silicon Valley, and Seattle — over 100 protesters participated.18 Google fired 28 workers following these protests; additional terminations followed. Several fired workers did not participate in the protests themselves.18 Fired employees filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in May 2024, alleging Google retaliated against workers for protected concerted activity.19
Post-April 2024, NTFA continued organising within Google, focusing on disclosure of the full scope of MoD contracts. Campaign materials published in 2025 cited The Intercept’s May 2025 investigation7 as confirmation of the “Classified Team” structure. NTFA and allied organisations engaged shareholder accountability mechanisms at Alphabet’s 2024 and 2025 annual meetings requesting disclosure of human rights risk assessments for government AI contracts; both resolutions were defeated (see below).28
The BDS Movement has formally called for a boycott of both Google and Amazon in connection with Project Nimbus.17
Google’s public response: Google has stated that Project Nimbus “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” a characterisation contradicted by internal documents showing the contract does not restrict military access and that Google has processed multiple specific IMOD requests for expanded AI capabilities.78
2024 AGM (June 2024): At Alphabet’s June 2024 Annual General Meeting, shareholders linked to the No Tech for Apartheid campaign submitted a proposal requesting that Alphabet’s board commission an independent human rights impact assessment of Project Nimbus and disclose the results to shareholders. The resolution was defeated; Alphabet’s board recommended a vote against on the grounds that existing human rights policies were adequate. The proposal was also referenced in the proxy statement following its submission under SEC Rule 14a-8. Specific vote percentages are not confirmed in training knowledge.28
2025 AGM (June 2025): A similar resolution was submitted for the 2025 AGM and again defeated. No Tech for Apartheid and allied institutional investors including some ESG-focused funds supported the resolution; major index funds (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) voted with management. The specific vote count is not confirmed in training knowledge.28
Finding: Shareholder accountability mechanisms were engaged at both the 2024 and 2025 AGMs; both Nimbus-disclosure resolutions were defeated. The Alphabet Proxy Statement (DEF 14A, 2025) confirms the Page/Brin supervoting share structure, which gives the founding shareholders effective control over such votes.28
NLRB complaint (filed May 2024): The NLRB issued a complaint against Google in 2024, finding sufficient merit to proceed with the retaliation allegation. As of available information through early 2026, the case was pending administrative adjudication; no final NLRB order or settlement has been publicly reported.22 Google has maintained that the firings were for violating workplace conduct policies during the sit-in protests, not for the protected activity of opposing Project Nimbus. Live verification of current status is required.
OECD National Contact Point: Based on training knowledge, no OECD NCP complaint has been filed specifically against Google LLC or Alphabet Inc. regarding its technology provision to Israel or operations in occupied territories. OECD NCP complaints related to the Israeli-Palestinian# V-DIG Audit — Google LLC / Alphabet Inc.
Target: Google LLC (subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.)
Domain: Digital Forensics (V-DIG)
Date: 2026-05-01
Scope: Cloud infrastructure, AI/ML provision, surveillance technology, digital sovereignty, Israeli tech ecosystem, R&D footprint, acquisitions, civil society scrutiny.
No public evidence identified that Google LLC has procured Check Point, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Verint, Nice, Claroty, or comparable Israeli-origin cybersecurity or analytics software for integration into its own enterprise infrastructure at a scale or strategic depth meriting documentation under this category. Google develops the majority of its own security tooling internally (BeyondCorp, Mandiant).
Note: Alphabet’s CapitalG growth equity fund led a $140 million investment round in Salt Security (Israeli API cybersecurity startup) and is in reported talks to co-invest in VAST Data (Israeli AI infrastructure) alongside NVIDIA — this investment has not been confirmed as completed and should be treated as reported, not confirmed.1 These are investment relationships (outbound capital), recorded in the Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint section below.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin — Alphabet shareholding: Page and Brin retain Class B supervoting shares in Alphabet, giving them effective voting control of the corporation despite reduced economic stakes. As of Alphabet’s most recent proxy, Page held approximately 5.9% of economic equity but ~26% of voting power; Brin held approximately 5.7% economic / ~25% voting power. They remain the controlling shareholders of Alphabet Inc. in the governance sense.28
Personal investments in Israeli tech: No public evidence identified of Larry Page or Sergey Brin holding personal or family-office equity stakes in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-technology firms. Page’s known investments concentrate in aerospace, life sciences, and autonomous systems; no Israeli defense-tech investment has been publicly reported.
Sundar Pichai (CEO): No public evidence identified of Sundar Pichai holding personal investments in Israeli cyber, surveillance, or military-tech firms.
John Hennessy (Chair, Alphabet board): No public evidence identified of personal investments in Israeli military/surveillance technology.
Eric Schmidt (former CEO, departed board 2019): Schmidt Futures has funded Israeli university research partnerships (Weizmann Institute, Technion) as educational/research grants rather than equity investments in Israeli defense-tech. Schmidt’s personal defense-tech investments are primarily in US-focused firms (Rebellion Defense, Shield AI). No public evidence confirmed of Eric Schmidt personally holding equity stakes in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-technology companies. Schmidt is not a current controlling principal of Alphabet.36
CapitalG and GV (Alphabet Ventures): These are Alphabet corporate investment vehicles, not personal principal investments. Their Israeli-tech investments (Salt Security, AI21 Labs, VAST Data talks) are recorded in the Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint section.
Finding: No public evidence identified of current controlling principals (Page, Brin, Pichai, Hennessy) holding personal investments in Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, or military-tech firms. The investment relationships are held at the corporate/fund level (CapitalG, GV), not the personal principal level.
Not applicable at material level for Israeli-origin software procurement in Google’s own enterprise stack.
No public evidence identified.
Google Photos — IDF Use in Gaza (2024, ongoing): Reporting by The Intercept (April 2024) and corroborated by +972 Magazine and NPR established that the Israeli military deployed Google Photos’ built-in facial recognition function as part of a mass surveillance operation across Gaza.2 Israeli military intelligence officers uploaded a database of known individuals to Google Photos and used the platform’s search-by-face function to identify and track Palestinians. An anonymous Israeli official confirmed to The Intercept that Google Photos “worked better than any of the alternative facial recognition tech” deployed in this programme.2 The operation was described as targeting alleged Hamas combatants involved in the October 7 attack, but expanded to broad civilian surveillance, resulting in mass arrests of civilians including poet Mosab Abu Toha, who was subsequently released without charges.2
When The Intercept asked Google whether this use was consistent with Google Photos’ terms of service — which prohibit use to cause “serious and immediate harm” — company spokesperson Joshua Cruz declined to address the substance of the question.2 Google has not publicly disclosed any steps taken to prevent or address this use of its platform.
Corsight Technologies — Parallel Deployment in IDF Gaza Operation: The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre documented a report finding that both Google Photos and Corsight Technologies’ dedicated facial recognition system were independently deployed by Israeli military intelligence in Gaza for mass identification operations.25 Corsight is an Israeli facial recognition company; the two systems are described as complementary rather than integrated — Google Photos provided the accessible commercial tool while Corsight provided a more specialised biometric pipeline. No ownership, investment, or partnership relationship between Google and Corsight has been identified in public sources. The connection is that both systems were independently deployed in the same Israeli military operation.
Project Nimbus AI Capabilities — Facial Detection (2021-ongoing): The Intercept reported in July 2022 that Project Nimbus services marketed to the Israeli government include facial detection, automated image categorization, object tracking, and sentiment analysis.3 Training materials confirmed Google briefed Israeli government officials on the Cloud Vision API’s ability to identify faces, landmarks, and emotions in images, and on AutoML, which allows Israel to train custom machine learning models on its own government data — including offline/edge deployments that fall outside Google’s monitoring.3
Sentiment Analysis (Project Nimbus): Project Nimbus training materials documented Google marketing sentiment analysis capabilities — tools that claim to assess the emotional content of pictures, speech, and writing — to Israeli government customers.3 An engineer at a Nimbus webinar confirmed it was technically possible to use the Google infrastructure “to train a model to identify how likely it is that a certain person is lying, given the sound of their own voice.”3
Palantir Foundry via Nimbus marketplace: The Intercept reported in May 2024 that Project Nimbus establishes a digital marketplace providing Israeli government users — including military users — access to Palantir Foundry, a data analysis tool used by militaries internationally for targeting operations.4 Google facilitates Palantir’s access to Israeli military and government customers through this marketplace structure. In January 2024, Palantir entered a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defense specifically to support its “war effort.”4
Human Rights Watch and 7amleh (Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media) published documentation in 2024 of systematic content removal and account restrictions affecting Palestinian journalists and activists on YouTube and Instagram/Facebook.33 Access Now co-signed letters calling on platforms including Google/YouTube to ensure Palestinian content is not disproportionately suppressed. Google/YouTube disputed characterisations of bias, citing consistent application of Community Guidelines. This constitutes documented civil-society scrutiny of Google’s platform operations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict context and is recorded here as a platform governance issue distinct from the technology-provision findings documented elsewhere in this audit.
Tel Aviv Cloud Region (me-west1) — Launched October 2022: Google activated its first local cloud region in Israel in October 2022 as part of the Project Nimbus contract requirements.5 The region — designated me-west1 — is physically located in Tel Aviv and operates under Israeli sovereignty and law. The Google Cloud Blog announced the launch of the Israel region as delivering “low-latency for users in the area” with “a full complement of Google Cloud services.”5
The local region architecture ensures Israeli government data, including sensitive state and military data, remains within Israeli borders, meeting Israeli data sovereignty requirements. Google established this infrastructure specifically in response to the Nimbus tender requirement.
me-west1 — Commercial Customer Base: Beyond government and military users, the me-west1 region serves a mixed commercial-government customer base. Teva Pharmaceuticals was named in the Project Nimbus procurement framework as a required cloud purchaser,4 making it a documented commercial customer of the me-west1 infrastructure. Israeli financial institutions (Bank Hapoalim, Leumi) have been reported in Israeli tech press as Google Cloud customers, with data residency in the me-west1 region. Israeli health sector organisations have been cited in Google Cloud case studies as me-west1 customers.31 The breadth of the customer base means Israeli law’s potential reach to data hosted in the region extends to a substantial commercial population beyond state actors.
Project Nimbus (2021-ongoing): Google and Amazon Web Services jointly won a $1.2 billion Israeli government tender in April 2021 to provide an “all-encompassing cloud solution” for “the government, the defense establishment and others,” per the Israeli Finance Ministry announcement.6 Google’s share of the contract, based on internal projections, was estimated to generate $3.3 billion in revenue between 2023 and 2027 — serving not just the government but the Israeli military, financial sector, and corporations including Teva Pharmaceuticals.6
The contract includes provisions explicitly stating that Google is “not permitted to restrict the types of services” that Israeli government and military entities can access, and that Google must “notify the Israeli government as early as possible” of any legal scrutiny related to the contract.7 Internal documents reviewed by The Intercept indicate this structure would prevent Google from complying with potential international legal orders regarding Israel’s use of the technology.7
Israeli state-owned weapons manufacturers Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are named in the Nimbus procurement documents as parties required to purchase Google Cloud services if they need cloud computing.4
Expanded MoD Access (2023-2024): Following the October 2023 Hamas attack and Israeli military campaign in Gaza:
– November 2023: The Israeli Ministry of Defence requested emergency expanded access to Google’s Vertex AI platform. Internal documents show Google employees escalated the request, fearing the MoD would turn to Amazon if denied. Google granted access.8
– March 27, 2024: A draft contract showed Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defence over $1 million for consulting assistance to expand Cloud access to “multiple [IDF] units” and their access to automation technologies.8
– Throughout 2024: Multiple additional MoD requests for expanded AI platform access were processed by Google.8
– November 2024: A Google employee pushed internally for IDF access to Gemini, Google’s flagship generative AI model for document processing and audio analysis.8
Project Nimbus — 2025 Status: Based on available evidence through April 2026, Project Nimbus continued operating without any publicly announced modification, restriction, or termination. The contract, originally announced in 2021 with a projected 2023–2027 revenue period for Google, remained in force. The Intercept’s May 2025 investigation7 — the most recent primary-source investigation — reported on the Classified Team structure and contract waiver mechanisms without reporting any post-ICJ Advisory Opinion modification; its reporting was framed as describing the current (as of May 2025) operational state of the contract. Haaretz reported continued Israeli government satisfaction with Nimbus services through 2025, with no reports of service degradation, access restrictions, or contract renegotiation.24 Whether the original 2021 contract has been renewed, extended, or formally amended beyond the original 2023–2027 projection is not publicly confirmed; live verification is required.
The Project Nimbus contract was explicitly designed to protect the Israeli state from “international digital sanctions, data embargoes, or cable severing” by establishing sovereign, locally-hosted cloud infrastructure.7 Internal Google assessments noted the contract could require Google to “Reject, Appeal, and Resist Foreign Government Access Requests” — effectively weaponising Google’s data architecture against third-party legal accountability.7 A Business for Social Responsibility consultant specifically recommended withholding AI and machine learning tools from the Israeli military; Google disregarded this recommendation before signing.7
Google’s commercial products in settlements: Google’s consumer products — Search, Gmail, Maps/Waze, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Play — are available commercially throughout Israel, including in Israeli settlements in the West Bank (Area C), as they operate on the Israeli telecommunications infrastructure which extends into settlement areas. This reflects passive commercial availability rather than targeted settlement provision, but means Google services are operative within internationally recognised occupied territory.
Google Maps and West Bank: Google Maps depicts Israeli settlements in the West Bank using Israeli naming conventions and as connected territory for navigation purposes, a matter that has been the subject of advocacy-group complaints. This is a mapping/data classification issue rather than a discrete technology contract.
Project Nimbus — Settlement nexus: The Project Nimbus contract is with the Israeli government and military. The Israeli Civil Administration (which administers settlements in Area C) is a military administration body. Whether Project Nimbus services extend to Civil Administration digital infrastructure is not publicly documented. No specific evidence identified of a discrete Nimbus contract component for settlement administration.
Waze in the West Bank: Waze provides navigation services throughout Israel and the West Bank, including routing through and around settlements. This is a product function of the Google/Waze service on Israeli infrastructure, not a discrete contract.
UN OHCHR settlement database: Google/Alphabet does not appear in the published OHCHR database of enterprises (~120 companies) involved in settlement activity (HRC res. 31/36 / 53/25) through the 2023 iteration. The database focuses on companies with physical presence in settlements or providing settlement-specific infrastructure. Google’s primary Israel nexus is cloud/AI services to the state and military, not direct settlement operations. Live verification against the latest database iteration is required.
Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) — Methodology Clarification: DBIO’s published lists (2023, 2024) use a methodology focused on companies that provide goods and services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including financial services, construction materials, logistics, retail, telecommunications, and utilities. Google does not appear in the DBIO 2024 primary named company list based on available training knowledge. Google’s operational profile — cloud/AI to central government and general consumer availability throughout Israeli-controlled territory — does not align with DBIO’s settlement-infrastructure methodology. This is a methodological distinction, not an exculpatory finding; the DBIO scope is narrower than the V-DIG Settlement Nexus rubric. Live verification of the 2024 and any 2025 DBIO report is required.
Israeli R&D access to engineering systems: Google operates approximately 2,000 engineers in Tel Aviv and Haifa working on core product areas including search algorithms, AI/ML, YouTube features, cloud computing, and chip development.10 Following the completion of the Wiz acquisition in March 2026, this footprint has expanded materially — Wiz employed approximately 900+ people globally at acquisition, with a substantial portion based in Israel, bringing total Israeli-based Google engineering headcount to an estimated 2,500+ across the combined entities. These engineers operate under Israeli employment law and are physically located in Israeli jurisdiction, creating a structural condition in which engineering system access may be subject to Israeli legal process, including potential obligations under the Israeli Intelligence Community Law 2017.
me-west1 region: Data stored in the me-west1 region is subject to Israeli law, including potential compelled access under Israeli security legislation. The Project Nimbus contract explicitly ensures Israeli government data remains within Israeli borders.57
Google Israel Ltd. and the Intelligence Community Law 2017: Google’s Israeli operations are conducted through Google Israel Ltd., registered with the Israeli Companies Authority, operating as a service/R&D subsidiary of Google LLC. Section 11 of Israel’s Intelligence Community Law requires Israeli entities to cooperate with Israeli intelligence agencies. The law’s application to foreign-owned subsidiaries operating in Israel is a matter of legal debate. However, Google Israel Ltd., as an Israeli-registered company employing Israeli nationals, operates within the structural scope of this law. No public disclosure of any intelligence cooperation request or compliance by Google Israel Ltd. has been identified; actual invocation is unknown.36
Android location data and Israeli legal process: Google’s standard legal-process response framework creates a pathway for Israeli authorities to access Israeli-user data (including Android location history) through lawful court orders. This is structurally consistent with all jurisdictions in which Google operates and is not a specially constructed Israeli data-access pathway. Google’s Transparency Report confirms Israel as a data-requesting government; specific request volumes and compliance rates for Israel are publicly available in the Transparency Report archives.34
Finding: The primary data-exposure pathways are (a) Israeli R&D and Wiz personnel with system access operating under Israeli legal jurisdiction, (b) data stored in the me-west1 region subject to Israeli law, and (c) standard legal-process requests from Israeli authorities for user data. No evidence identified that general consumer data (Gmail, Search, YouTube) is specifically routed through Israeli infrastructure for the global user population.
The ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 found Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories unlawful and called on all states and international organisations to cease conduct facilitating the occupation.26 The ICC issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in November 2024.27 Both instruments constitute formal constructive notice to all entities operating with knowledge of them.
The existing documentary record shows the following activity after 19 July 2024:
– July 2024: Google Cloud staff responded to a request from an account connected to IDF contractor CloudEx, assisting with making Gemini AI more reliable at identifying drones, armoured vehicles, and soldiers in aerial footage — occurring contemporaneously with the ICJ Advisory Opinion.9
– November 2024: A Google employee pushed internally for IDF access to Gemini for document processing and audio analysis.8
– Ongoing 2024: Multiple additional MoD requests for expanded AI platform access were processed.8
– Through April 2026: Project Nimbus continued in its original contractual form without documented modification.724
The constructive-notice record now spans a series of instruments and findings: (a) BSR internal recommendation pre-2021 advising against AI provision to Israeli military, which Google disregarded before signing the Nimbus contract;7 (b) The Intercept investigations in 2022,3 2024,24 and 2025;7 (c) the July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion;26 (d) the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants;27 and (e) the February 2026 whistleblower reporting.9 No public evidence has been identified that Google took steps to modify, restrict, or terminate Project Nimbus military access following any of these instruments. Google’s public characterisation of Nimbus as not covering “sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services” has been maintained consistently, with no public announcement of any post-ICJ AO or post-ICC policy review identified.
Documented in the Surveillance and Cloud sections above (Project Nimbus, MoD Vertex AI access, MoD Gemini access, $1M+ consulting contract with MoD, March 2024). The IMOD is a confirmed, active Google Cloud customer with escalating access to AI and machine learning capabilities from 2021 to at least November 2024.
“Classified Team” of Israeli nationals: Internal Google documents reviewed by The Intercept (May 2025) disclosed that Google operates a “Classified Team” of Israeli nationals within Google who participate in “joint drills and scenarios” with Israeli government security agencies — cooperation described internally as not currently provided to any other country.7
Gemini AI / Drone Footage Analysis (2024): A whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC in August 2024 (reported by The Washington Post in February 2026) alleged that in July 2024, Google’s cloud division received a customer support request from an account connected to CloudEx, an IDF contractor, using an IDF-linked email address.9 The request asked for help making Google’s Gemini AI more reliable at identifying objects — specifically drones, armored vehicles, and soldiers — in aerial video footage. Google Cloud staff responded by making suggestions and conducting internal tests.9 Google disputed the characterisation, stating the account had “less than a couple hundred dollars of monthly spend” and therefore the assistance was not “meaningful,” but did not deny the substance of the assistance provided.9
A Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) consultant, commissioned by Google prior to signing the Nimbus contract, specifically recommended withholding AI and machine learning tools from the Israeli military.7 Google disregarded this recommendation before signing. This finding is significant for the constructive-notice analysis because it predates the 2024–2025 international legal developments: Google possessed its own internally commissioned human rights due diligence notice warning against military AI provision and overrode it. No public evidence identifies any subsequent BSR or equivalent assessment being commissioned to review the situation post-October 2023 or post-July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion.
Mandiant (acquired September 2022 for $5.4 billion): Mandiant is a cybersecurity and threat intelligence firm. Prior to acquisition, Mandiant/FireEye had a commercial presence in Israel and provided threat intelligence and incident response services globally including to governments, maintaining a regional office in Israel.29 No public evidence has been identified confirming that Mandiant held specific contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defence or military intelligence agencies prior to the Google acquisition; Mandiant’s Israel-facing business was primarily commercial enterprise security and government cybersecurity (civilian ministries), consistent with its global commercial model. Post-acquisition, Mandiant operates as a Google Cloud subsidiary; Google Cloud’s security portfolio including Mandiant is part of the Project Nimbus service catalog available to Israeli government and military customers, meaning Mandiant’s threat intelligence and incident response services would be accessible to IMOD customers through the Nimbus procurement vehicle, even if no standalone post-acquisition Mandiant-IMOD contract has been separately disclosed. Live verification of pre-existing Israeli government/military contracts through pre-2022 Mandiant SEC filings is required.29
Wiz (wholly owned since March 2026): Following the completion of the Wiz acquisition, Wiz’s cloud security posture management capabilities are now accessible to Israeli government/military through the Nimbus procurement vehicle. Google Cloud announced Wiz’s integration into its Security Command Center and broader cloud security portfolio.32 Israeli tech press reported that Wiz’s Israeli sales and engineering teams were retained and that Google Cloud planned to leverage Wiz’s strong Israeli market relationships for expanded enterprise and government sales in Israel.32 No specific announcement of Wiz products being separately marketed to the Israeli MoD or military intelligence has been publicly reported as of training knowledge cutoff; the existing Nimbus contract provides the procurement vehicle through which Wiz’s cloud security products could reach Israeli government/military customers without a separate announced contract.
DeepMind (UK-based, wholly owned): No public evidence identified of DeepMind-specific work for Israeli state or military customers.
YouTube: YouTube operates in Israel as a standard commercial platform. No evidence of special government contracts. YouTube’s content moderation decisions regarding Israeli-Palestinian conflict content have been the subject of civil-society criticism documented by HRW and 7amleh (see Surveillance section above).33
Waymo: No Israeli nexus identified.
Verily: No Israeli nexus identified.
No public evidence identified of Google developing, selling, licensing, or maintaining offensive cyber-weapons or zero-day exploit tools for Israeli state actors.
Documented above. Vertex AI, Gemini, AutoML, Cloud Vision API, and sentiment analysis tools have been provided to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and broader Israeli government, with confirmed escalating military use from October 2023 onward.378
AutoML and custom model training: Project Nimbus training documents confirmed that AutoML capabilities allow the Israeli government to train custom machine learning models on its own data — including for edge/offline deployments — without Google visibility into the resulting models or their applications.3 This includes potential training on surveillance, biometric, or signals intelligence data.
No public evidence identified that Google has specifically provided autonomous target generation systems to Israeli military or security forces. The drone footage assistance (see Defence section) was conducted through Gemini, a general-purpose AI platform, and is classified accordingly.9
Note on domain boundary: Israel’s military AI targeting systems “Lavender” and “The Gospel” are Israeli-developed systems; no public evidence identifies Google technology as a direct input to either system’s core function. The IDF’s use of Google Photos for facial recognition and Google Cloud for data storage are general-purpose product deployments, not purpose-built autonomous targeting systems.
At Alphabet’s June 2024 Annual General Meeting, shareholders submitted a proposal requesting that Alphabet’s board commission an independent human rights impact assessment of Project Nimbus and disclose the results. The resolution was submitted under SEC Rule 14a-8 and defeated; Alphabet’s board recommended a vote against on the grounds that existing human rights policies were adequate.28 A similar resolution was submitted for the June 2025 AGM and was again defeated. Major index funds (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) voted with management at both meetings; No Tech for Apartheid and allied ESG-focused institutional investors supported the resolutions. Precise vote counts are not confirmed in available training knowledge and require live verification.28
Google operates R&D facilities in both Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel. As of 2024, approximately 2,000 engineers work across these locations, covering cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, search algorithms, YouTube features, and chip development.10 Google’s Israel R&D centre has operated for over 20 years. Vice President of Engineering Yossi Matias led the Israel R&D operation from 2014 until 2024, when he transitioned to a global role at Google’s Mountain View headquarters.10
The March 2026 completion of the Wiz acquisition has materially expanded Google’s Israeli engineering footprint. Wiz employed approximately 900+ people globally at acquisition, with a substantial portion based in Israel; these personnel are now Google employees, bringing total Israeli-based Google engineering headcount to an estimated 2,500+ across the combined entities.11
Waze (2013) [pre-2020]: Google acquired Israeli navigation startup Waze for approximately $1.15–1.3 billion in 2013. Waze was founded in Israel and was incorporated into Google Maps.
Velostrata (2018) [pre-2020]: Google acquired Israeli cloud workload migration startup Velostrata in 2018; it was integrated into Google Cloud’s migration tooling.35
Alooma (2019) [pre-2020]: Israeli data pipeline/ETL startup acquired by Google in 2019.10
Elastifile (2019) [pre-2020]: Israeli cloud file storage startup acquired by Google for approximately $200 million (reported).10
SlickLogin (2014) [pre-2020]: Israeli multi-factor authentication startup acquired by Google in 2014, undisclosed consideration.10
Wiz (acquisition completed March 2026): Google completed the acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity unicorn Wiz for $32 billion in March 2026 — the largest acquisition in Google’s history and the largest-ever exit for an Israeli technology company.11 Google announced the deal in March 2025 and received antitrust clearance from U.S. and EU regulators by February 2026. Wiz, founded in 2020, provides cloud security infrastructure services for enterprise customers globally, with approximately 40% of Fortune 100 companies among its customer base at the time of acquisition. All four Wiz co-founders — Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — are veterans of Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s elite signals intelligence and cyberwarfare unit.12 The founders previously co-founded Adallom, which was sold to Microsoft in 2015 (not Google) for $320 million, before founding Wiz. Wiz is now a wholly-owned Google subsidiary; Assaf Rappaport serves as VP/GM of Wiz within Google Cloud, with the other co-founders retaining senior roles.32
Wiz is being integrated into Google Cloud’s security portfolio, providing agentless security scanning across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP). No public evidence identified that Wiz held specific contracts with the Israeli MoD or military intelligence as a customer prior to acquisition; Wiz’s market focus was enterprise commercial customers. Under Israeli law, Unit 8200 alumni frequently maintain reserve military obligations, which can include periodic active service; no public evidence identifies any specific classified or intelligence work being performed by the Wiz co-founders in their Google capacity.
CapitalG investments in Israeli startups: Alphabet’s CapitalG growth equity fund led a $140 million investment round in Salt Security (Israeli API cybersecurity company).1 CapitalG and NVIDIA are in reported talks to invest in VAST Data (Israeli AI infrastructure startup valued at approximately $9.7 billion in a 2024 Series E round); this investment has not been confirmed as completed and should be treated as reported, not confirmed.30
AI21 Labs: Alphabet invested through its GV (Google Ventures) vehicle alongside NVIDIA in AI21 Labs (Israeli NLP/generative AI company, founded 2017, Tel Aviv), participating in the Series C ($64 million, 2021) and Series C2 ($170 million, 2023).23 AI21 Labs develops the Jurassic-series large language models and the Wordtune writing assistant. No public evidence identified of AI21 Labs contracts with Israeli military or intelligence agencies; the investment is a strategic/financial relationship in the Israeli AI ecosystem.
Historical note on Adallom: Adallom (cloud access security broker, founded by Wiz co-founders) was acquired by Microsoft in 2015, not Google. It is referenced here solely for completeness of the Wiz co-founders’ corporate history.35
Academic research partnerships (2011) [pre-2020]: Google signed a long-term research collaboration with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the Technion in 2011, funding approximately 20 research projects focused on internet economics and online auctions.13
Ben-Gurion University (announced 2023–2024, ongoing): Google and Ben-Gurion University announced a strategic collaboration on AI and cybersecurity, including joint research, student training, internships, and applications of AI in national infrastructure and industry.14 Ben-Gurion University’s cybersecurity research programme has historical links to Israeli military and intelligence research priorities, and the university houses INCAS (Israeli National Cyber Authority–affiliated research). No specific classified or military component of the Google–BGU collaboration has been publicly identified.
UN Special Rapporteur — A/HRC/59/23 (Albanese, 2 July 2025): The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, named Google/Alphabet in her 2025 report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” in the context of cloud and AI infrastructure provision to the Israeli government and military.20 The report discusses Project Nimbus as providing Israeli state and military actors with AI, cloud storage, and data-processing infrastructure that enables the administration and prosecution of the occupation, addresses the dual-use character of general-purpose cloud/AI platforms, and calls on technology companies to conduct enhanced human rights due diligence and to cease provision of services that materially support the occupation economy. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are the two primary cloud contractors named. Precise paragraph citations should be verified against the primary UN document. The A/HRC/59/23 report builds on the predecessor corporate accountability analysis in A/HRC/52/59 (2023), in which Google and Amazon were also named in the cloud/AI provision context.20
AFSC Investigate database: Lists Alphabet/Google as a company involved in arming and enabling Israeli military operations, citing Project Nimbus as the primary ground.15
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC): Has documented multiple Google-Israel technology relationships, including the Google Photos facial recognition use in Gaza, the Nimbus contract scope, whistleblower allegations, and the parallel deployment of Google and Corsight technologies in the IDF’s Gaza facial recognition programme.1625
Who Profits: Has documented Google’s involvement through Project Nimbus and the broader Israeli tech ecosystem.17
Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO): Based on available training knowledge, Google/Alphabet does not appear as a named company in the DBIO 2024 primary list. DBIO’s methodology focuses on companies providing settlement-specific infrastructure, logistics, and financial services; Google’s profile (cloud/AI to central government, general consumer availability) does not align with this primary methodology. This is a methodological distinction, not an exculpatory finding. Live verification against the 2024 and any 2025 DBIO reports is required.
Amnesty International — “Automated Apartheid” (2023): Amnesty’s 2023 report on surveillance technology in the West Bank documents that Israeli authorities use commercial facial recognition systems at checkpoints throughout the West Bank. The primary vendors identified are Israeli firms (AnyVision/Oosto, Briefcam/Canon); the report does not specifically name Google as a vendor of checkpoint surveillance technology. Contextually relevant to the broader Israeli surveillance technology ecosystem within which Google’s products operate.
Human Rights Watch and 7amleh (2024): Documented systematic content removal and account restrictions affecting Palestinian journalists and activists on YouTube (see Surveillance section).33
No Tech for Apartheid (NTFA): The worker-led No Tech for Apartheid campaign has organised Google employees against Project Nimbus since 2021. In April 2024, NTFA led sit-in protests at Google’s offices in New York, Silicon Valley, and Seattle — over 100 protesters participated.18 Google fired 28 workers following these protests; additional terminations followed. Several fired workers did not participate in the protests themselves.18 Fired employees filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in May 2024, alleging Google retaliated against workers for protected concerted activity.19
Post-April 2024, NTFA continued organising within Google, focusing on disclosure of the full scope of MoD contracts. Campaign materials published in 2025 cited The Intercept’s May 2025 investigation7 as confirmation of the “Classified Team” structure. The campaign called for Google shareholders to vote against board members at Alphabet’s 2024 and 2025 annual meetings in connection with Project Nimbus; shareholder disclosure resolutions were defeated at both AGMs.28 NTFA and allied organisations filed additional actions before the 2025 Alphabet AGM requesting disclosure of human rights risk assessments for government AI contracts.
The BDS Movement has formally called for a boycott of both Google and Amazon in connection with Project Nimbus.17
Google’s public response: Google has stated that Project Nimbus “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” a characterisation contradicted by internal documents showing the contract does not restrict military access and that Google has processed multiple specific IMOD requests for expanded AI capabilities.78
NLRB complaint (filed May 2024): The NLRB issued a complaint against Google in 2024, finding sufficient merit to proceed with the retaliation allegation.22 As of available information through early 2026, the case was pending administrative adjudication; no final NLRB order or settlement has been publicly reported. Google has maintained that the firings were for violating workplace conduct policies during the sit-in protests, not for the protected activity of opposing Project Nimbus. Live verification of current status is required.22
OECD National Contact Point: Based on training knowledge, no OECD National Contact Point complaint has been filed specifically against Google LLC or Alphabet Inc. regarding its technology provision to Israel or operations in occupied territories. OECD NCP complaints related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have primarily targeted financial institutions and physical infrastructure companies, not US cloud providers. Live verification against the OECD NCP database and the US NCP (housed at the State Department) records is required.
EU and UK regulatory: The European Commission’s primary regulatory engagement with Google/Alphabet concerns competition law (Android, Shopping, AdSense cases) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) designation as a gatekeeper. No EU regulatory inquiry specifically targeting Google’s Israeli military AI contracts has been publicly reported. The UK Competition and Markets Authority reviewed the Wiz acquisition for competition concerns with no adverse finding. No UK regulatory body has opened an inquiry specifically related to Google’s Israel contracts. The European Parliament has passed non-binding resolutions critical of tech companies’ roles in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, without initiating enforcement against specific companies.
No public evidence identified of export control enforcement actions, sanctions investigations, or regulatory proceedings specifically targeting Google’s technology provision to Israel.
Times of Israel, “Google investment fund leads $140m round in Israeli cybersecurity startup.” https://www.timesofisrael.com/google-investment-fund-leads-140m-round-in-israeli-cybersecurity-startup/ ↩↩↩↩
The Intercept, “Google Won’t Say Anything About Israel Using Its Photo Software to Create Gaza ‘Hit List’,” 5 April 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/04/05/google-photos-israel-gaza-facial-recognition/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
The Intercept, “Documents Reveal Advanced AI Tools Google Is Selling to Israel,” 24 July 2022. https://theintercept.com/2022/07/24/google-israel-artificial-intelligence-project-nimbus/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
The Intercept, “Israeli Weapons Firms Required to Buy Cloud Services From Google and Amazon,” 1 May 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/05/01/google-amazon-nimbus-israel-weapons-arms-gaza/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
Google Cloud Blog, “Google Cloud region in Tel Aviv Israel now open,” 2022. https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/new-google-cloud-region-in-israel-is-now-open ↩↩↩↩↩↩
Al Jazeera, “What is Project Nimbus, and why are Google workers protesting Israel deal?” 23 April 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/what-is-project-nimbus-and-why-are-google-workers-protesting-israel-deal ↩↩↩↩
The Intercept, “Google Worried It Couldn’t Control How Israel Uses Project Nimbus, Files Reveal,” 12 May 2025. https://theintercept.com/2025/05/12/google-nimbus-israel-military-ai-human-rights/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
Time Magazine, “Google Contract Shows Deal With Israel Defense Ministry,” 2024. https://time.com/6966102/google-contract-israel-defense-ministry-gaza-war/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
The Washington Post, “Whistleblower says Israeli military contractor used Google’s Gemini AI,” 1 February 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/01/google-ai-israel-military/ ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
Globes, “Google Israel R&D head Yossi Matias moving to global role,” 2024. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-google-israel-rd-head-yossi-matias-moving-to-global-role-1001477138 ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
TechCrunch, “Google wraps up $32B acquisition of cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz,” 11 March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/11/google-completes-32b-acquisition-of-wiz/ ↩↩↩↩↩
Middle East Eye, “Google ‘playing with fire’ by acquiring Israeli company founded by Unit 8200 veterans.” https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/google-playing-fire-acquiring-israeli-company-founded-unit-8200-veterans ↩↩
Business Wire, “Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and the Technion Sign Long Term Research Collaboration with Google,” 16 March 2011. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316005678/en/Hebrew-University-Tel-Aviv-University-and-the-Technion-Sign-Long-Term-Research-Collaboration-with-Google ↩↩
Ben-Gurion University / Google strategic AI and cybersecurity collaboration announcement, 2023–2024. (Verify at https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news — search Google collaboration) ↩↩
AFSC, “Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide.” https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies ↩↩
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, multiple reports on Google and Israel. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/companies/alphabet-google/ ↩↩
BDS Movement, “No Tech for Oppression, Apartheid or Genocide.” https://bdsmovement.net/no-tech-oppression-apartheid-or-genocide ↩↩↩↩
NPR, “Google fires 28 workers who protested selling technology to Israel,” 18 April 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/18/1245654926/google-fires-28-workers-who-protested-selling-technology-to-israel ↩↩↩↩
CNN Business, “Former Google workers fired for protesting Israel deal file complaint claiming protected speech,” 1 May 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/01/tech/google-workers-nlrb-complaint-israeli-palestinian-protest/index.html ↩↩
UN General Assembly Human Rights Council, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide: corporate accountability for business enterprises’ operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Report of the Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, A/HRC/59/23, 2 July 2025. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g25/099/23/pdf/g2509923.pdf ↩↩↩↩
Reuters, “Google completes $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz,” March 2026. https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-completes-32-billion-acquisition-cybersecurity-firm-wiz-2026-03/ ↩
NLRB, Complaint against Google LLC, 2024. https://www.nlrb.gov/case-search ↩↩↩
AI21 Labs, Series C funding announcement, 2021. https://www.ai21.com/blog/ai21-labs-raises-64m-series-c ↩↩
Haaretz, reporting on internal Google deliberations on Project Nimbus military access and continued Israeli government satisfaction with Nimbus services, 2024–2025. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tech-news/2024-04-18/ty-article/google-workers-protest-project-nimbus-contract-with-israel/0000018f-0b4f-d9f4-afff-0f7f87660000 ↩↩↩
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, “Report reveals Google & Corsight Technologies used in Israel’s expansive facial recognition program in Gaza,” 2024. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/report-reveals-google-corsights-technologies-role-in-israels-expansive-facial-recognition-program-in-gaza/ ↩↩↩↩
International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Advisory Opinion, 19 July 2024. https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192 ↩↩↩↩
International Criminal Court, Situation in the State of Palestine — arrest warrants issued for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Pre-Trial Chamber I, 21 November 2024. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges ↩↩↩↩
Bloomberg, reporting on Alphabet AGM shareholder resolutions on Project Nimbus human rights disclosure, June 2024 and June 2025. (Verify at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles — search Alphabet AGM 2024 and 2025 Nimbus proxy resolutions) ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
Mandiant / FireEye SEC filings and annual reports, pre-acquisition through 2021. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=MNDT ↩↩↩
Calcalist / Globes, reports on VAST Data Series E funding round and reported CapitalG/NVIDIA investment talks, 2024. (Verify at https://www.calcalist.co.il and https://en.globes.co.il — search VAST Data Series E) ↩↩
Google Cloud, customer case studies — Israel region (me-west1). https://cloud.google.com/customers (See also Teva Pharmaceuticals reference in The Intercept 4; Israeli banking and health sector customers reported in Israeli tech press) ↩↩↩
Financial Times / Reuters, Google Cloud Wiz integration and post-acquisition Israeli commercial positioning announcements, March–April 2026. (Verify at https://www.ft.com/technology and https://www.reuters.com/technology) ↩↩↩↩↩
Human Rights Watch and 7amleh (Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media), documentation of Palestinian content moderation on YouTube, 2024. HRW reports available at https://www.hrw.org/topic/technology-and-rights; 7amleh at https://7amleh.org/reports ↩↩↩↩
Google Transparency Report — government requests by country, including Israel. https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview ↩↩
Google Cloud Blog, “Welcome Velostrata to Google Cloud,” 2018. https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/cloud-migration/welcome-velostrata-to-google-cloud (Adallom correction: acquired by Microsoft in 2015, not Google — referenced only for Wiz co-founders’ prior corporate history) ↩↩↩
Israeli Intelligence Community Law 2017 (Hok HaKlalit Shel Kehilat HaModi’in), Section 11. For English-language summary and analysis, see: Herb Lin, “Israel’s Intelligence Community Law,” Hoover Institution, 2017. (Primary Hebrew text available at https://www.gov.il) ↩↩↩
