AWS to expand its development staff in Israel following a reportedly multi-million-dollar deal with data acceleration startup NeuroBlade
According to sources, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud arm of Amazon, has finalized an agreement to integrate the core engineering team of NeuroBlade, an Israeli startup known for its breakthrough data processing technology. The deal, which is valued in the tens of millions of dollars, marks one of Amazon’s most significant move in Israel since its acquisition of Annapurna Labs in 2015.
Unlike traditional acquisitions where Amazon takes full ownership of a company, this transaction focuses on absorbing NeuroBlade’s top talent. The engineers joining AWS will expand its development staff in Israel, aimed at advancing next-generation data and analytics technologies within AWS’s infrastructure.
From Israeli Innovation to Global Cloud Scale
Founded in 2018 by Elad Sity and Eliad Hillel, both veterans of Israel’s elite Unit 81 and former senior executives at SolarEdge, NeuroBlade has developed a dedicated SQL Processing Unit (SPU) that accelerates analytical queries on massive datasets by 4–10x compared to leading CPUs.
Backed by investors such as Intel Capital, Grove Ventures, StageOne Ventures, MediaTek, and Marius Nacht, NeuroBlade’s SPU has delivered record-breaking results in industry-standard benchmarks like TPC-H and TPC-DS, making it one of the most promising data analytics acceleration platforms globally.
The technology’s ability to handle thousands of queries per hour efficiently positions it at the heart of one of the world’s fastest-growing compute markets: analytical data processing — a segment second only to AI in global data center demand.
Before focusing on analytics, NeuroBlade made waves by developing pioneering in-memory compute architectures, an area now being explored by giants like Samsung and NVIDIA. That early R&D laid the foundation for its current breakthroughs in data processing.
A Partnership Years in the Making
The deal comes after several years of deep collaboration between NeuroBlade and AWS. NeuroBlade’s technology was already integrated into AWS EC2 F2 instances, enabling cloud customers to accelerate analytics workloads without changing their existing applications. AWS even highlighted NeuroBlade as its official analytics acceleration partner on the product’s landing page.
In a letter to employees, CEO Elad Sity wrote: “This transaction marks the next chapter for NeuroBlade. For me and Eliad, NeuroBlade has always been more than a company — it has been part of our lives and our family. Over the past eight years, we’ve built technologies we are deeply proud of, and a work environment and culture we always dreamed of.״
The team, consisting of dozens of hardware and software engineers, will now lead AWS initiatives aimed at pushing the boundaries of data processing and cloud infrastructure performance, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A Strategic Piece in Amazon’s Global Tech Expansion
The NeuroBlade deal seems to align with Amazon’s broader acquisition strategy in AI, data infrastructure, and custom silicon. Over the past two years, Amazon has purchased companies including Perceive (AI chips for edge devices, ~$80M), Fig (developer tools), MX Player (India-based video platform, ~$100M), and Bee (AI-powered smart wearable).
However, NeuroBlade stands out as Amazon’s first major Israeli acquisition in nearly a decade, reinforcing the country’s role as a critical innovation hub for the tech giant.
AWS’s continued investment in in-house chip design – from Graviton CPUs to Inferentia and Trainium AI accelerators – reflects a long-term effort to reduce reliance on external suppliers and deliver faster, more efficient, and cost-effective performance for its customers.
A Win for the Israeli Tech Ecosystem
For Israel’s deep-tech ecosystem, the NeuroBlade-AWS deal is a major validation. The country’s long-standing strength in semiconductor and hardware innovation continues to attract global leaders seeking talent and intellectual property.
For NeuroBlade’s founders and employees, the integration into AWS represents a rare opportunity to scale their technology globally – and to help shape the future of data analytics at one of the world’s most influential technology companies.