Nvidia narrows Israel campus locations to three options

US chip giant Nvidia is in the final stages of deciding on the location for its huge campus in Israel. “Globes” has learned that an Israeli delegation managing the campus project, which includes locating land and possibly even contacting potential construction developers, visited Nvidia’s US headquarters in mid-August to approve the selected proposals. The final decision will likely be made in September.

The most preferred proposals came from three local authorities in the north: the Megiddo Regional Council, which is considered the favorite, Kiryat Tivon, and Kiryat Ata. What these three have in common is their relative proximity to Nvidia Israel headquarters in Yokneam, convenient access to Road 6, and proximity to the main power lines that reach from the center to the Haifa area via Hadera and are essential for operating energy-intensive AI data centers.

Easy access

In July Nvidia published a request for information (RFI) to find a plot of land between 70 and 120 dunams in area (17.5-30 acres) for the construction of a research and development campus of between 80,000 and 180,000 square meters, with immediate contiguous building rights, located between Zichron Yaakov in the south west, Migdal Ha’emek in the east, Kiryat Ata in the north, and Haifa in the west.

One of the leading proposals, as previously revealed by “Globes,” is that of the Mevo Carmel Industrial Park, which is just a nine-minute drive from Nvidia israel’s headquarters. The park, located south of Yokneam between Elyakim and Kibbutz Ramot Menashe in the Megiddo Regional Council, has extensive land reserves and is close to the privately-owned Hagit power plant.

The corporate tax rate in the park is low, and it already hosts two AI processing facilities for Nvidia’s internal use. Mevo Carmel Park covers 548 dunams (137 acres) and has a 580 dunam (145 acres) expansion plan next to the Ein Tut Interchange, by Road 6, which is due to be built within two or three years.

The location that could host the next tech center tomorrow

A surprising proposal is that of Kiryat Tivon, whose senior officials are keeping a low profile on the subject, while cooperating with the Israel Land Authority. Beyond the fact that Nvidia sees it as a leading proposal, it will allow many employees – including senior company executives who live there to reach Nvidia’s offices relatively quickly, and it is only an eight-minute drive from Nvidia’s offices in Ofer Park in Yokneam.

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Kiryat Tivon has submitted an approved urban development plan for an employment zone that includes 90 dunams (22.5 acres) of available and approved land for construction with building rights for 120,000 square meters. The employment zone will be located near the Kishon River and close to the Sha’ar Ha’emekim interchange on Road 6, and would meet the criterion for high accessibility to the Haifa area and central Israel.

Another unexpected proposal is from Kiryat Ata Municipality, which is in the northeastern corner of the master plan in the request for information published by Nvidia. The northern city has also kept a low profile about the submission of its plans to Nvidia. It is proposing to build the campus as part of the existing 1025 plan for building new neighborhoods by commercial and office areas on the agricultural land north of the city.

The area is on the route of the Haifa-Nof Hagalil “Nofit” light rail, which is currently being built, close to Highway 22, Highway 781 and the Ata North interchange, and close to railway stations in the area, Haifa Airport and Road 6. The city’s new large hospital is also going to be built near the proposed complex, which will also include R&D areas. Its strategic location near Haifa, Kiryat Tivon and Yokneam and its location at the northern end of Road 6, give it an advantage that other industrial parks in the Jezreel Valley and Lower Galilee do not have.

Dozens of proposals

Estimates are that Nvidia plans spending up to NIS 500 million on buying the land and a further NIS 1.5 billion on building the campus. Dozens of local authorities sent Nvidia proposals to locate the campus in their jurisdiction, including in areas not defined in the target area, such as on the Lebanese border, Safed and even Ariel and Ashkelon.

The three most preferred proposals beat out a number of authorities that made attractive offers to the chip giant, including the Nof HaGalil Regional Council, which suggested the Zipporit Industrial Park; Migdal HaEmek with the “Sagi 2000” industrial zones near Tel Adashim and Ramat Gavriel Park – where the Tower and Flex factories are located; Afula, which proposed the Anan Group’s data center; and Yokneam, proposed Ofer Industrial Park, where Nvidia has its Israel offices.

The aim of the campus is to hire several thousand more employees in Israel at a location close to the company’s development center in Yokneam, which is currently responsible for several of Nvidia’s flagship products – including communications chips for cloud servers and AI.

Among Nvidia’s Israeli developments are sophisticated AI server racks that process AI at the fastest rate today, as well as communication technology that connects such racks to create “AI factories,” large data centers that meet the growing demand for training and running language models.

No need to compete

Meetings between Nvidia executives and government officials and top officials at local authorities are being held constantly, and a source told “Globes” that ultimately Nvidia could choose to purchase land at several sites and not just one.

At the same time, a decision is currently being promoted to be brought before the Israel Lands Council to grant land to Nvidia for the purpose of building the campus, with a certain discount depending on the area it chooses. As “Globes” reported last month the Israel Land Authority has earmarked 14 sites for Nvidia that meet the criteria it defined for the campus.

The Israel Land Authority and the Ministry of Finance are now promoting a resolution that will officially approve the allocation of land to Nvidia at a reduced fee. The proposed resolution, details of which were recently seen by “Globes,” confirms that the state is interested in providing Nvidia with land exempt from a tender – a fact that in itself already gives the company an advantage, since it does not have to compete for the land with other bidders.

Discounts on lease payments

The proposal by the Israel Land Authority and Ministry of Finance also includes discounts on the lease fees that Nvidia will pay, in virtually every region of the country: for land in the center, according to the proposal, Nvidia will pay discounted lease fees at a rate of 51% of the land value, instead of the usual 91%.

This benefit is usually reserved only for National Priority B areas, and only for the expansion of factories, and in the central area where land values are known to be very high, this is a very significant discount.

Among the authorities that offered Nvidia the opportunity to build the campus on their land was Netanya Municipality, which is not in the search area defined by the company and it is possible that this benefit was also offered for there, in the event that Nvidia ultimately decides to purchase land at several sites.

No response has been forthcoming from Nvidia.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on August 28, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.