The $15 billion windfall: How 2025 quietly made thousands of Israeli tech workers rich
Behind the record exits and stock gains, a historic transfer of wealth reshaped Israel’s economy.
Amid the flood of headlines about the extraordinary number of exits and the sharp gains recorded in technology stocks over the past year, one number largely went unnoticed: NIS 50 billion (approximately $15.8 billion). This is the net amount, in cash, that employees in the Israeli high-tech industry received in 2025. It is an all-time high, even higher than in 2021, which was a phenomenal year by any measure. This figure still does not include the three largest exits of the year - Wiz, CyberArk, and Armis - because these deals have not yet been completed and the money has not yet been paid.
2025 was a record year for exits. Israeli companies, particularly in cybersecurity, were sold at a rapid pace, and much of the public discussion focused on how much tax revenue these deals would generate for the state treasury, with far less attention paid to the new wealthy class being created by this wave of exits. While three cyber deals, the sale of Wiz to Google for $32 billion, the sale of CyberArk to Palo Alto Networks for $25 billion, and the sale of Armis for $7.75 billion to ServiceNow, dominated the headlines, additional transactions worth roughly $20 billion were signed and completed over the past year.
At the same time, stock market gains, particularly on Wall Street, have significantly improved the financial position of high-tech employees. International companies such as Google and Nvidia, which employ thousands of workers in Israel, as well as Israeli public tech companies, have seen sharp increases in their share prices. According to estimates, employees of Nvidia Israel alone realized more than NIS 3 billion ($950 million) in share sales during 2025 and still hold additional shares worth billions of shekels.
The NIS 50 billion figure represents cash actually deposited into the bank accounts of tens of thousands of employees: workers at startups that were sold or carried out secondary transactions; employees of Israeli public companies traded on Wall Street; and employees of multinational companies with R&D centers in Israel who exercised stock options or restricted stock units (RSUs). This is a net figure, after an average tax rate of about 35% paid by most employees on capital-based compensation, and it does not include salaries or bonuses.
Most options are taxed as capital gains at a rate of 25%, but some are classified as employment benefits and are therefore taxed as ordinary income, in some cases at rates approaching 50%.
This reflects only the capital-compensation component, which employees do not always fully grasp in advance, despite the enormous sums it can generate following a sharp rise in share prices, a large secondary transaction, or the sale of a company. In 2025, there was a great deal of all three. According to data collected by Calcalist from companies that manage employee equity and option plans, hundreds of new dollar millionaires were created in Israel last year, and in shekel terms, the number reaches into the thousands.
These figures matter beyond curiosity or voyeurism. They have a tangible impact on the Israeli economy, from the shekel-dollar exchange rate, through the real estate market, to private consumption. They once again highlight the central role of the high-tech sector in Israel’s economic growth, not only through exports and corporate tax, but also through personal taxation and consumption.
The two dominant players managing employee equity programs are IBI Capital, which holds about 40% of the market and manages plans for mature startups and Israeli companies traded on Wall Street, and ESOP, part of the Phoenix Investment House, which oversees most equity plans for multinational companies operating in Israel, primarily Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft. The remainder of the market is largely handled by Altshare, which focuses mainly on early-stage startups.
The Israeli high-tech sector currently employs about 400,000 people, divided roughly equally among startups, multinational companies, and Israeli public technology companies.
The demographic breakdown of employees who exercised options or shares in 2025 is not particularly encouraging, but it mirrors the broader high-tech industry: predominantly male and centered in Tel Aviv. About 75% are men and 25% women. Most live in central Israel, and roughly 90% of exercises were carried out in the U.S., compared with about 10% in Tel Aviv.
One notable statistic is that more than 70% of those exercising capital compensation were aged 40 and over. Still, the smaller cohort aged 30-40 is also receiving unusually large sums at a relatively young age. Once the Wiz and Armis deals are completed, both companies with younger average employee ages, the number of young millionaires is expected to rise significantly.
Alongside this snapshot, two long-term trends are becoming increasingly clear: the share of women among recipients of capital compensation is rising, and the average age is declining. According to Altshare data, women account for about 30% of recipients among employees over 50, 35% among those aged 31-40, and 37% among employees under 30. The growing presence of younger employees among equity beneficiaries, fewer than 20% were aged 30 or younger in 2023, compared with as much as 40% in startups today, reflects the cyber boom, a sector characterized by young workers who often enter the workforce immediately after military service, without prior academic education.
Another 9,000 new millionaires in shekels
Even before Wiz, the largest payouts in 2025 came from startups, driven by an unprecedented number of secondary transactions. The number of exits was also exceptionally high, though large payouts do not always require multibillion-dollar sales. In some cases, the sale of a one-year-old startup with a few dozen employees for $150-200 million can generate larger individual rewards than the sale of a much larger public company.
According to industry data, hundreds of such transactions took place in 2025, creating about 12,000 new shekel millionaires. Of these, roughly 200 individuals received more than NIS 10 million each. These figures stem from what might be considered “mid-sized” exits, including the sale of insurtech company Next to Munich Re for $2.6 billion and fintech company Melio to Xero for $2.5 billion.
Secondary transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars were also completed at companies such as Cato, where 1,400 employees shared $120 million, and Armis, which conducted a $100 million secondary transaction for employees even before its sale.
The largest secondary transaction in the history of Israeli high-tech was completed this year by DriveNets, where 500 employees and early investors sold shares worth $650 million to U.S. telecom giant AT&T. Across these and other transactions, trust companies transferred approximately NIS 35 billion ($11.1B) before tax to more than 10,000 employees and angel investors. At IBI alone, NIS 23 billion ($7.3B) was distributed among 9,300 employees, an average of NIS 2.4 million ($760,000) per person. These figures include only cash transfers and exclude share swaps in which employees received stock in the acquiring company.
According to ESOP, the number of exit and secondary transactions it handled in 2025 rose by 20%.
For multinational companies with R&D centers in Israel employing more than 100,000 people, 2025 was also an outstanding year. While the year began shakily amid concerns over former U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariff policies, market performance from April onward more than compensated. Employees at companies such as Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft sold shares worth about $5 billion before tax, roughly NIS 17 billion at the average exchange rate.
Even this does not capture the full scale of accumulated wealth. According to Tal Dori, CEO of IBI Capital, another 80,000 employees currently hold vested, in-the-money options and shares worth a combined NIS 67 billion ($21.2B). In practical terms, this means that with a single instruction to an equity-plan administrator, these funds, net of tax, could be transferred to employees’ bank accounts. If all eligible employees exercised their holdings today, another 9,000 shekel millionaires would be created.
Including employees of multinational companies, the total amount of vested, exercisable equity rises to NIS 130-140 billion.
Another unexpected contributor in 2025 was the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Most equity plans for companies listed locally are managed by Altshare, whose CEO, Ronen Solomon, said the past year was unprecedented. “This is the first time Tel Aviv has competed with Nasdaq not only in returns, but also in the amounts employees received,” he said. Standout performers included defense and renewable-energy companies that distributed 10% or more of their shares to employees, in line with high-tech norms.
“In Israel, unlike many other countries, the share of people becoming wealthy through high-tech relative to population size is among the highest in the world,” Dori said. “That is why the impact of the sector on the economy and urban life is so strong. The state’s most important task is to continue supporting the sector, removing barriers, and ensuring companies and employees remain in Israel; this is a first-class national strategic asset.”
Looking ahead, Eyal Froind, CEO of ESOP at Phoenix Investment House, added: “It was a fascinating year, marked by global market volatility, and the best is still ahead. We expect 2026 to bring record activity by global companies in the local market. Equity is a central component of high-tech compensation, and in public companies it becomes liquid and realizable.”
