Microsoft opened new R&D center in Nazareth

6 June, 2016

Microsoft has launched its third Israel R&D center in Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab city. Microsoft’s goal is to recruit local engineers

Microsoft has launched its third Israel R&D center in Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab city. Microsoft’s goal is to recruit local engineers

The new Nazarth Microsoft R&D center
The new Nazarth Microsoft R&D center

Yoram Yaacovi, the director of development at Microsoft Israel R&D Center launched Microsoft’s third Israeli R&D center in Nazareth last week. The Galilean city of Nazareth is Israel’s largest Arab community. Many dignitaries is executives took part in the festivious event– amongst them Nazareth’s mayor, a representative of the US embassy and Microsoft‘s Corporate Vice President T. K. Rengarajan, as well as hundreds of local engineers.

Nazareth is Israel's largest Arab municipality
Nazareth is Israel’s largest Arab municipality

The new center is located in the center of downtown Nazareth. It is the Redmond giant’s third R&D center in Israel – joining the exiting centers in Herzliya and Haifa – more traditional high-tech hubs than Nazareth. Microsoft’s R&D centers in Israel employ more than 1,000 workers. The Nazareth center employees will be integrated into Microsoft’s cyber security, big data. Cloud based services, computer intelligence and personalization projects already underway in the two exiting Israeli R&D’s.

Yoram Yaakovi commented that “the new site is an additional step in our efforts to integrate Arab engineers in our development enterprise in Israel, and to deepen our activities in the country’s North. Israel’s Arab citizens are a source of untapped potential – they comprise 25% of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s computer science graduates each year, but that only a tenth of those graduates end up working in the field. We’re striving to ensure that the number of Arab engineers we employ is will be close to their relative share of the population” concluded Yaakovi.

Microsofts first R&D center in Israel was founded in 1991 in Haifa. It was the first Microsoft R&D center open outside the US. In 2006, Microsoft decided to expand its presence in Israel, defining its R&D centers in the country as global Microsoft strategic R&D centers. A unique status shared only by few company centers outside the US.

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Posted in: Featured Stories , News , Software and IT

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