Author: Techtime

Lenovo to acquire Infinidat

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Lenovo has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Infinidat Ltd. , an Israel-based  global provider of high-end enterprise storage solutions. The acquisition is part of Lenovo’s growth strategy. It aimed to strengthen Lenovo’s enterprise storage offerings globally that meet the evolving needs of modern data centers. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. The terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

“With the acquisition of Infinidat, we are well-positioned to accelerate innovation and deliver greater value for our customers,” said Greg Huff, Chief Technology Officer, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. “Infinidat’s expertise in high-performance, high-end data storage solutions broadens the scope of our products, and together, we will drive new opportunities for growth.” Phil Bullinger, Chief Executive Officer of Infinidat, said that the merger “will expand the value we provide to enterprise and service provider customers across on-premises and hybrid multi-cloud environments.”

Analysts estimate the deal will help Lenovo to compete with it major rivals, Hewlett Packard and Dell Technologies, and to move up from enterprise-level market into the cloud.  Infinidat provides enterprises and service providers with a platform-native primary and secondary storage architecture that delivers comprehensive data services needed for modern workloads across on-premises and hybrid multi-cloud environments. Infinidat’s Technology is based on 140 patents. sInce it was established in 2011, the company had raised approximately $370 millions. According to Infinidat, 25% of Fortune 50 companies are using its storage solutions.

Revealense Appoints Dr. Liran Antebi as Senior HLS and Defense Advisor

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Revealense, an Israeli startup specializing in AI-based technology for analyzing and understanding behavioral DNA in video footage, has announced the appointment of Dr. Liran Antebi as Senior HLS and Defense Advisor. In this role, Dr. Antebi will focus on strategy and policy in Artificial Intelligence, particularly in the growing area of deepfake threats, and will support the company’s efforts in strengthening its security operations globally.

Dr. Liran Antebi is an expert in security technologies and defense tech, with a distinguished career spanning over 15 years in research and consulting in strategy. She holds a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University, where her dissertation focused on unmanned and autonomous systems in the battlefield. Dr. Antebi has previously managed the Advanced Technologies Program and conducted research on technological forecasting and policy at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). She is also a Senior Visiting Researcher at the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop at Tel Aviv University and currently advises both civilian and defense organizations in Israel and worldwide on topics such as AI, UAVs, autonomous tools, and strategy development.

Dr. Antebi will enhance Revealense’s growing security team, following the appointment of Major General (Res.) Dr. Yacov Bengo to lead the company’s Defense sector, managing its relationships with militaries, governments, intelligence agencies, and defense industries in Israel and worldwide.

Revealense’s technology provides in-depth human behavior analysis capabilities, enhancing the performance of security forces in training, intelligence gathering, threat detection, and defense. The company’s solutions support military and defense organizations with simulation-based training, combat readiness, border control, monitoring and processing of intelligence data, identification of hostile entities, and more.

Additionally, the technology is employed by military medical corps to diagnose trauma, assess mental resilience, and identify the development of depression or suicidal tendencies.

Dov Donin, Founder and CEO of Revealense, commented: “Dr. Liran Antebi’s unique and extensive expertise is invaluable to our continued growth in the rapidly expanding deepfake detection market. With governments, media organizations, brands, and financial institutions increasingly concerned about the potential damage from fake videos, the market is set to grow to $40 billion in the U.S. alone, with an average annual growth rate of 33.5%. We are excited to have Dr. Antebi join Revealense, and we are confident that her contributions will accelerate the company’s growth.”

Founded in 2021 by Dov Donin, Revealense operates as a bootstrap company with a team of 10 experts from fields such as psychology, neuropsychology, mathematics, AI, computer vision, and physics. The company’s flagship product, the Illuminator system, uses AI to analyze human behavior in live or recorded video footage. For the first time in this field, the system can identify the precise context of a video, such as open conversations, credibility assessments, interrogations, or mental state evaluations, applying tailored algorithms to each specific scenario.

The system generates a mental DNA profile of the subject, enabling managers, investigators, and psychologists to make informed, accurate, and fair decisions. A unique feature of the system is an additional neural network that performs cross-referencing of various parameters to validate findings, ensure consistency, and calibrate results. This patented technology addresses shortcomings in competing solutions, which often rely on single or disconnected metrics without cross-validation.

OurCrowd recognized as Israel’s most active venture investor in 2024

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 OurCrowd has been confirmed once again as Israel’s most active venture investor in 2024 in Startup Nation Central’s Annual Report. This is the 11th straight year that OurCrowd has been recognized. OurCrowd participated in 77 investment rounds during the year – more than double the next most active fund in the SNC list – including 25 first-time investments. 

The SNC report highlights Israel’s position as a global scale-up powerhouse, despite the 15-month conflict triggered by the Hamas massacre on October 7th, 2023. Israeli startups raised over $12.2 billion in 2024, a 31% increase from 2023. The tech ecosystem achieved remarkable milestones in 2024 — unexpected funding levels, high-value M&A deals, and outstanding performances by public companies.

In 2024, in addition to its participation in a record number of investment deals, OurCrowd registered an increase in new active investors and in the total amount invested in startups during the year compared to 2023.

OurCrowd’s 2024 milestones include:

  • OurCrowd launched 11 funds including the Israel Resilience Fund, which backed over 40 Israeli companies affected by the war, unlocking matching capital and other sources for over $100 million in funding. We also launched the OurCrowd AI Fund in cooperation with NVIDIA Inception that has invested in 15 different AI portfolio companies.
  • First closing and investment in OurCrowd’s Korea-Israel Fund backed by the Korea Government and a major bank for $60 million.
  • Participated in three exits, including the sale of transmitral valve company Innovalve Bio Medical to Edwards Lifesciences for $300 million.
  • International investments on the OurCrowd platform continued to perform well, including Databricks, Groq, and other leading AI companies.

“Some people were afraid that Israel’s tech ecosystem would fall apart in the war, but it never happened,” said OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. “Israeli readiness to embrace innovation, even when it seems somewhat risky, is a long-standing trait that is key to our sector thriving even in wartime – and crucial to its flourishing in the years to come. OurCrowd remains Israel’s most active venture investor, making significant investments in innovative startups both at home and abroad during a challenging period. The fact that Israel continues to grow its tech sector during war is sort of a core element of who we are, and our commitment to supporting this ecosystem is rock solid.”

As of February 2025, OurCrowd has over $2.3B billion in commitments, and deployed capital into more than 480 portfolio companies and 58 funds across five continents. OurCrowd’s global platform currently has 240,000 registered members from 195 countries.

DigiKey to provide STM32 second generation MPU

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DigiKey announces the launch of STMicroelectronics’ STM32MP25 second-generation microprocessors. The STM32MP25 industrial-grade single or dual 64-bit Arm Cortex-A35 core serves as an MPU platform for Industry 4.0 and advanced edge AI capabilities. I consists of a neural processing unit adds up to 1.35 TOPS, making it a choice microprocessor for edge AI acceleration and robust security.

“The STM32MP25 microprocessors efficiently address the need for more intelligence and processing capability in connected edge IoT devices,” said Loris Valenti, vice president microcontroller, digital and RF product group Americas, STMicroelectronics.

Features:

  • Robustness for complex industrial applications
  • Industrial-grade MPU
    • 100% operating time for 10 years
    • Extended temperature up to +125°C
  • 10-year rolling longevity program
  • Flexible resource allocation between cores
  • 64-bit MPU with advanced compute capabilities
  • Enabling edge AI
    • NPU accelerator: up to 1.35 TOPS
    • Flexibility to run AI on CPU, GPU or NPU depending on application (AI tools)
  • Enabling high-end edge computing use cases (machine vision) thanks to multimedia capabilities
    • 3D GPU supports up to 1080p resolution
    • Full HD video pipe with LVDS and DSI interfaces
    • MIPI CSI-2 camera interface with Lite-ISP
  • Supporting the growth of connected applications

About DigiKey

DigiKey, headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., USA, is recognized as the global leader and continuous innovator in the cutting-edge commerce distribution of electronic components and automation products worldwide. We get technical by providing more than 15.9 million components from over 3,000 quality name-brand manufacturers with an industry-leading breadth and depth of product in stock and available for immediate shipment.

Camtek Received $70 Million Orders for its New Products

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Above: Camtek’s newly announced Eagle G5 inspection system

Camtek announced that it has received over $50 million in initial orders from several customers for its new Hawk product, with additional orders in the pipeline. These orders will be delivered throughout 2025. The Hawk, based on a new platform, addresses high-end Advanced Packaging technologies including capabilities for inspection and 3D measurements of wafers with 500 million micro bumps and Hybrid Bonding technology.

The Hawk will be officially launched in February 2025 at Semicon Korea. It addresses very demanding applications, including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), Chiplet and Hybrid Bonding. At the same time, Camtek has also received initial Orders totaling $20 Million for its other newly launched product – the Eagle G5. The orders will be used primarily for 2D inspection of Advanced Packaging Fan-out applications.

Rafi Amit, Camtek’s CEO, said that Eagle G5,  “is the first of several breakthrough systems we plan to introduce in the coming months.” Eagle G5 is an for automated optical Inspection and Metrology system of semiconductor wafers, targeted for use for in the production lines of advanced packaging devices in applications such as HPC (high-performance computing), CIS (CMOS image sensors), SiC (Silicon Carbide), and others.

During the third quarter of 2024, Camtek has achieved record revenues of $112.3 million, a 40% year-over-year (YoY) increase. The company expexts $115 million sales in Q4, which would represent a 30% increase over revenues in Q4 2023. ” Given our guidance, 2024 is expected to be a record year for Camtek with revenue around $427 million, which would represent 35% growth YoY.”

Mobileye to use Innoviz LiDAR for its AV Platform

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Above: Mobileye’s robotaxi in its HQ campus in Jerusalem

Mobileye and Innoviz Technologies, announced that Mobileye will use Innoviz’s LiDARs for Mobileye Drive, its AV platform. Mobileye Drive is a comprehensive driverless system that enables to provide robotaxis, ride-pooling, public transport, and goods delivery fully autonomous. It is now under comprehensive tests in Europe, North America, and Asia. Innoviz’s LiDAR technology will join the current cameras, radars, and imaging radars in this platform. The agreement is built upon mutual work between the two companies over the past few months, with Start of Production (SOP) beginning in 2026.

“The integration of our imaging radars and high-resolution cameras in combination with the Innoviz LiDARs will play a key role in delivering Mobileye Drive,” said Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye. Innoviz’s InnovizTwo product platform specifically engineered for Mobileye Drive to provide the L4 autonomous platform with a complete set of LiDARs.

“Better-than-expected cost reduction”

The agreement was signed shortly after Mobileye had eneded the internal development of Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDARs in September 2024. MobilEye explained the descision: “We now believe that the availability of next-generation FMCW lidar is less essential to our roadmap for eyes-off systems. This decision was based on a variety of factors, including substantial progress on our EyeQ6-based computer vision perception, increased clarity on the performance of our internally developed imaging radar, and continued better-than-expected cost reductions in third-party lidar units.”

The lidar R&D unit will be wound down by the end of 2024, affecting about 100 employees. Operating expenses for the lidar R&D unit are expected to total approximately $60 million in 2024 (including approximately $5 million related to share-based compensation expenses). While this action is not expected to have a material impact on Mobileye’s results in 2024, it will result in the avoidance of lidar development spending in the future.

SolarEdge Closes the Energy Storage Division

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Photo above: SolarEdge’s “Sella 2” plant, a two gigawatt-hour (2GWh) battery cell manufacturing facility in Korea

SolarEdge Technologies announced today that as part of its focus on its core solar activities, it will cease all activities of its Energy Storage division. This decision will result in a workforce reduction of approximately 500 employees, most of whom are in South Korea. The expected quarterly operating expenses savings due to the closure are approximately $7.5 million with the full run rate expected to be achieved by the second half of 2025.

The Company intends to sell the assets related to the storage division activities including its manufacturing facilities for battery cells and packs. This does not impact the solar business sale of batteries for residential and C&I markets. Ronen Faier, Interim Chief Executive Officer of SolarEdge, said: “The decision to close our Energy Storage division represent continued execution of two of our main priorities: financial stability  and profitability; and focus on our core business lines of solar, PV-attached storage and energy management capabilities.”

The activity in Korea is based on Kokam, a local producer of Lithium-ion battery cells, batteries and energy storage solutions, which was acquired by SolarEdge  in 2018 for approximately $105 millions. Following the acquisition, SolarEdge opened in May 2022 Kokam’s second plant, “Sella 2”, a two gigawatt-hour (2GWh) battery cell manufacturing facility. The manufactured battery cells for SolarEdge’s residential solar-attached batteries as well as battery cells for a variety of industries, including mobile, energy stationary storage solutions and UPS.

Ending all Non-solar activities

During 2023 , SolarEdge continued to ramp up the manufacturing capabilities in Sella 2, and planned to gradually increase its manufacturing capabilities during 2024. The current descision marks an historic moment for the company: the completion of the exit from all the non-solar activities, such as UPS, e-Mobility and battery cell productions. The non-solar activity never took off and had remained bewlow 10% of total revenues.

At its peak, in 2023, it had reached $200 million sales, when total sales surepassed $3 billions. During the first nine months of 2023, Kokam’s sales totaled $51.9 million, out of  SolarEdge’s $730.7 millions sales. The market reacted to the news by sending SolarEdge stock price on NASDAQ 8.5% up, giving the company a market cap of approximately $861 millions.