Nvidia establishes Israeli research group focused on AI for medicine and science
The Applied AI Architecture group has begun recruiting researchers in Israel and will work on AI applications ranging from genomics and drug discovery to new materials.
A new Nvidia research group focused on using artificial intelligence to accelerate medical and scientific breakthroughs has begun operating in Israel, Calcalist has learned.
The group, called Applied AI Architecture, is based at Nvidia’s Israeli development center and operates within the company’s global CTO office. The office is led by CTO Michael Kagan, a co-founder of Mellanox who is currently considered the most senior Israeli executive at Nvidia reporting directly to founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
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Michael Kagan (from right), Jensen Huang and Nati Daniel.
(Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg)
The group currently employs several researchers in Israel, with Nvidia planning to recruit dozens more over the coming year. The company’s website already lists several research positions in fields related to the group at its Tel Aviv offices.
Applied AI Architecture is headed by Dr. Nati Daniel, who holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Technion and previously held senior positions at Intel, GE and Huawei.
The group is being built around a long-term goal: using AI not simply to automate existing processes, but to accelerate the pace of scientific and medical discovery. Rather than focusing on immediate commercial applications, its researchers will work on scientific concepts that could eventually mature into technologies incorporated into Nvidia’s systems.
Nvidia already operates research groups in several locations around the world. What distinguishes the Israeli initiative is its placement within the global CTO office, as well as its model of combining in-house research with collaborations with medical institutions.
Israel was chosen in part because of its concentration of advanced AI and medical research centers. Nvidia is already developing partnerships in the country and is expected to announce additional collaborations.
One of the group's existing projects is a collaboration with Sheba Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York to develop a Genomic Foundation Model, or gFM. The model is intended to help researchers study the roughly 98% of the human genome that has yet to be deeply explored and about which scientific knowledge remains limited.
The project aims to identify new approaches to disease prevention, improve diagnostics and advance personalized medicine.
The Israeli group is also participating in Nvidia’s global collaboration with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The two companies plan to invest approximately $1 billion over five years to use AI to accelerate drug discovery and development by integrating and analyzing genomic and sequencing data alongside chemistry, biology and cellular context.
The Israeli team is participating in the development of AI technologies intended to shorten the path from scientific research to the development of new medicines and treatments.
Another project involving the group is GENMAT, an international research initiative launched several months ago that received a grant of approximately €6 million from the European Union’s Horizon program. The project brings together companies, universities and research institutes from across Europe to develop AI tools for discovering and developing new materials, including materials for the aviation, automotive and pharmaceutical industries.
The creation of the group adds another layer to Nvidia’s rapidly expanding Israeli operations. The company’s local development center has increasingly taken on a central role in its global research and development activities, while Nvidia continues to expand its workforce and operations in Israel.
The expansion could also have broader implications for Israel. Nvidia’s growing presence in the country has the potential to affect exports, GDP, tax revenues and government finances, particularly if the company continues to expand its Israeli operations at its current pace.
With Nvidia forecasting continued strong growth for the remainder of the year, the latest research expansion suggests that the company’s investment in Israel may still have further to run.
