An investigation by the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and a Hebrew-language outlet, Local Call has revealed that the Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase of its bombardment of Gaza.
The investigation is based in part on documents obtained by Drop Site News, which has published its own story.
The files offer an inside view of how Microsoft deepened its relationship with Israel’s defence establishment after 7 October 2023, supplying the military with greater computing and storage services and striking at least $10m in deals to provide thousands of hours of technical support, the Guardian reports.
Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Israel has emerged as one of Microsoft’s top 500 global customers, with the Israeli MoD serving as an umbrella customer of Microsoft, overseeing the Israeli military’s overall relationship with the company. But unlike a traditional centralized procurement model, where a single organization makes purchasing decisions on behalf of the entire entity, the Israeli military’s structure is more decentralized. What sets the Israeli military apart from other umbrella accounts is that various departments and entities within the Israeli military operate with a significant degree of autonomy and can independently sign contracts based on their internal budgets, Drop Site News said.
The conflict in Gaza, it added, spurred a "gold rush" among tech companies seeking to provide services to the Israeli military. In the weeks following the October 7th attack, Google escalated its efforts to provide Israel’s Defense Ministry with increased access to its AI technology. This urgency was driven by a concern that the military would turn to Google's competitor, Amazon, which also has a contract with the Israeli government. The new set of documents show that Microsoft was similarly enthusiastic about Israeli contracts and gave major discounts for the opportunity.