The Israel Defense Forces Talpiot Program has for decades been seen as “the jewel in the crown” of the Israel Defense Forces. It was established under the Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense R&D (DDR&D) (MAFAT), with the aim of identifying outstanding young people and training them as a technological-operational reserve. It turns out that this military training translates into business success on an exceptional scale.
A study conducted by program graduate Omer Doron together with Prof. Ilya Strebulaev at Stanford University, and being published for the first time by “Globes,” reveals that about 10% of Israeli unicorns are initiatives of program graduates. The rate of founders among Talpiot graduates is the highest in the world – five times even that of Stanford’s prestigious MBA program itself.
Lessons from the war translated into a technological incubator
Talpiot is MAFAT’s oldest elite program. It was designed after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Israel suffered from a gap between R&D and operations in the field, by Prof. Felix Dotan and Prof. Shaul Yatziv of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They presented their plan to the Ministry of Defense, and in 1979, Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan told them to implement the plan. When it was created, it is unlikely that anyone was thinking about “business.”
However, over the years, there have been numerous Talpiot graduates who founded world-renowned companies, from Check Point (Marius Nacht) to three of the four founders of Wiz (CEO Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak and Yinon Costica), which recently completed the largest-ever Israeli exit after selling the cybersecurity company to Google for $32 billion. The founders of very prominent companies in the defense industry (Cyera), quantum computing (Classiq), transportation (Via) and other fields also started their careers in the Talpiot Program.
“This is the first time that the business success of Talpiot graduates has been put on the table in a measurable way,” notes Brig. Gen. Benny Aminov head of MAFAT’s Military R&D unit. “We are concerned with technological superiority and core technologies, but everything starts with human capital. We want technological manpower, elite populations who will come to make an impact in the defense forces, in defense tech or in another ecosystem.”
Among Israel’s senior defense figures who graduated from the Talpiot Program are the former head of the National Security Council, Eyal Hulata; former MAFAT head Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofir Shoham; and founder of the National Cyber Bureau, Eviatar Matanya.
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Each of them was selected for the program while still a teenager. The few who make the cut are studying for a B.Sc. in physics, mathematics, computer science or a combination of these at the Hebrew University, with the aim of encouraging defense R&D at MAFAT and training them for the field.
“During selection, MAFAT’s Dr. Danny Gold, personally approves each individual and their track,” says Aminov. “When we talk about equivalent programs around the world, they select at the age of 27, while here it is ten years earlier.”
“>”Profound contribution to the Israeli economy”
The findings from the Stanford study on unicorns are incredibly exceptional by international standards. About 3% of Talpiot graduates founded a company valued at more than $1 billion dollars, while the Stanford University MBA program has six graduates out of every 1,000 – 80% less – founding a unicorn.
Of all Talpiot graduates about 25% have become entrepreneurs, with one in three founding startups that reach a valuation of more than $100 million. Thus one in eight graduates who become entrepreneurs founds a unicorn, and about 10% of all unicorns founded in Israel are founded by Talpiot graduates. Moreover, about 30% of deca-unicorns (valued at more than $10 billion) were founded by graduates of the program.
Doron explains that the study received information on graduates of the Talpiot program for over about 50 years, which strengthens the results. “The unicorn is a relatively new concept that has existed for about 15 years. At the national level, graduates of the program have made a profound contribution to the Israeli economy, in terms of tax payments and investment.”
Along with this, there is Roi Shafir a Talpiot graduate who for the past decade has headed the elite programs division at MAFAT. This also includes Psagot, a reserve program for technology service, combining a bachelor’s and master’s degree; and Odem, a technology boarding school in the Golan Heights from 10th grade to military service, including a degree from the Technion. The oldest program of all is Talpiot, whose graduates are also prominent in academia.
Graduates also choose to build careers in academia and the IDF
The study found that about 9% of the program’s graduates serve as professors at leading universities in the world, including Harvard, Stanford and Chicago, as well as at universities in Israel. At the same time, it was found that one in two graduates who completed a doctorate later reached the rank of professor.
Over the many years that the program has existed, more than 80 of its graduates have reached the rank of colonel in the IDF. “We will always lose in terms of quantity, but the technological advantage begins with human capital and the technological array,” concludes Aminov. “Although we haven’t done a study on the impact in the defense sector, there is the Israel Defense Prize, which has a high correlation, even if not quantitatively, to the elite programs and Talpiot in particular, which are partners in the prize. About three to four prizes a year. The command center has produced lieutenant colonels and colonels in the most leading technological units in the IDF, and even in the current fighting there are colonels who have led capabilities in the field of air defense, in which we are the most advanced in the world. There are also others who helped achieve air superiority, which made it possible to operate over Tehran, with a deep technological component.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 23, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
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