Paragon co-founder Idan Nurik to leave and launch AI infrastructure startup
Nurik is expected to depart in the coming weeks, as Paragon prepares to go public on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger.
Idan Nurik, a co-founder of cybersecurity company Paragon, is expected to leave the firm in the coming weeks to launch a new startup focused on AI infrastructure. The move was revealed on the same day that Paragon, currently part of REDLattice, announced plans to go public on Nasdaq through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Nurik remains at Paragon for now. Following his departure, Ehud Schneerson will be the company's only active co-founder.
It is estimated that Nurik will be joined in founding the new venture by a senior officer from Unit 8200 who is currently serving in the Israel Defense Forces and is in the midst of his pre-discharge leave.
The scale of the opportunity Nurik is entering has grown sharply as technology companies race to build the infrastructure needed to support AI. TrendForce estimates that the world's nine largest cloud service providers, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle, will spend a combined $830 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, an increase of 79% from the previous year. The spending includes data centers and the computing and networking infrastructure required to run AI workloads.
The investment is expected to continue accelerating. S&P Global estimates that capital expenditures by six major technology companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle, will rise from about $870 billion in 2026 to more than $1.3 trillion in 2027.
The infrastructure boom is already reflected in the results of Nvidia, whose chips underpin much of the AI computing industry. In its latest quarter, ended July 26, 2026, Nvidia reported $89 billion in data center revenue, up 117% from a year earlier. Total quarterly revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 106%.
The spending extends beyond chips and data centers to the electricity and other physical infrastructure needed to operate them. PwC estimates that global data center capital expenditure will reach roughly $800 billion in 2026 and projects that annual spending could rise to $1.8 trillion by 2050. Its longer-term forecast puts cumulative global investment in AI infrastructure at $31.6 trillion through 2050.
