Eyal Waldman with a startling warning: "I am investing much less in Israel"
The founder of Mellanox warns of the consequences of the current government's policies and reveals: "If the government is not replaced, I will regret leaving the company in the country."
Entrepreneur and industrialist Eyal Waldman, one of the founders of the chip company Mellanox, is issuing a sharp warning regarding the future of the Israeli economy and high-tech sector. In an interview with TheMarker, Waldman revealed that he has dramatically reduced his investments in the country: "I am investing much less in Israel — I am waiting to see what will happen after the elections."
Waldman, who at the time led the effort to keep Mellanox's intellectual property (IP) in Israel — a move that brought in tens of billions of shekels in tax revenue and made a decisive contribution to economic growth through Nvidia's operations — is now expressing deep concern about the political circumstances.
"If the government is not replaced in the upcoming elections, I will regret having left the company in Israel," he said.
According to him, if a "sane government" is not formed, Israel will struggle to attract foreign investment and the local high-tech sector will suffer a heavy blow.
In his remarks, Waldman referred to his recent meetings with senior figures in the high-tech world abroad: "They are all people who love Israel and have also invested in it — and they all warned me that we are in serious trouble. If the government is not replaced, it will be very difficult to attract investments here." He added and warned of a wave of departure: "270,000 excellent people have already left. In four years, this will accumulate to a million people. What is this if not a collapse? Successful high-tech people will not stay here."
In the interview, Waldman shared that at the time he opposed the sale of Mellanox to Nvidia (which was sold for $6.9 billion, and its communications division's revenue run rate currently reaches $70 billion), but he accepted the board's decision. He estimates that as an independent company, Mellanox would have reached revenues of tens of billions of dollars.
Despite the personal tragedy he experienced on October 7, when his daughter Daniel, of blessed memory, was murdered at the Nova festival, Waldman emphasizes that he still sees a need for a political settlement: "I changed my positions following October 7, but still, the solution of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians is better than killing each other. There needs to be a change of leadership on both sides, and of course, we must continue to maintain Israel's military strength."
