ARM hires 50 AI experts laid off by Sony Israel

A group of about 50 AI experts laid off by Sony Israel has moved to the Israel offices of British chip giant ARM, “Globes” has learned.

Sony Israel, based in Hod Hasharon, announced in November that it was shutting down its R&D office in Israel after 10 years. To support its employees, Sony promised to help finance the re-establishment of Altair, the Israeli startup it acquired in 2016, which was then developing 4G cellular communication chips. It was believed that only some of the 200 employees would be absorbed into the new-old company, while others would be forced to look for alternative employment.

The group that moved to ARM’s Israel development hub in Ra’anana between September and December 2025 includes the former director of Sony Israel’s AI and software division, and senior engineers developing AI algorithms in signal communications and image processing.

Many of these former employees worked on AI models and apps in Sony’s edge devices – a technology that gives electronic devices the ability to perform advanced AI processing and not rely on remote servers. Several of the employees are PhD researchers specializing in machine learning algorithms and computer vision. The Sony veterans offered attractive salary offers and the opportunity to work together as a team – many of them have been working side by side for many years.

Part of the initiative seems to have stemmed from direct communication between the managements of Sony and ARM, although ultimately ARM interviewed each employee individually and signed contracts with them.

Renewed momentum

As previously revealed by Globes, ARM is developing a graphics processor in Israel under the radar to compete with those of Nvidia and Intel. In the past year, it has been leading efforts to grow in the Israeli market and is building on the Israeli chip development industry, in which tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple and Nvidia operate. ARM’s development center in Israel doubled in size during 2025, partly due to the absorption of employees from Sony’s AI group and now has nearly 200 employees in Ra’anana. According to its job site, it is hiring software engineers specializing in machine learning and graphics processors, as well as developers of test tools for chip development.

ARM’s Israeli team operates in the company’s global graphics processing group and is currently developing a GPU for the video game market. At this stage, the processor does not compete with Nvidia’s Blackwell AI graphics processor or AMD’s Mi processors. However, industry experts believe that, as happened with Nvidia in the past, ARM could decide to convert the processor’s purpose to AI.

Sony to spin off Israel chipmaking activity

SoftBank, which holds a controlling stake in ARM, held an IPO in September 2023. Since then, the company’s stock has doubled in price but has barely risen since mid-2024 and fell 29% in 2025. Now, ARM is gaining renewed momentum from investment houses that are upgrading their buy recommendation for its stock. This is due to expectations of ARM’s involvement in developing components for AI chips for OpenAI with SoftBank and in collaboration with Broadcom, as well as due to a partnership in developing a core processor (CPU) for Meta servers.

As part of the SoftBank conglomerate, ARM will participate in the US Stargate data centers project. The project’s funding providers are expected to include Oracle and OpenAI as well as SoftBank.

The field did not grow as planned

Sony had hoped to sell its development activities in Israel as a single unit to a technology giant for $300 million, as reported by “Reuters” in July 2025 but when the deal fell through, it decided to unilaterally withdraw from its operations in Hod Hasharon and invest a modest amount in reviving Altair.

Sony Israel operated in the field of 4G communications (LTE) for edge devices (iOt), but the field did not grow as planned, and annual revenue was about $80 million. The Israeli division operated in the field of communications between devices, separate from Sony’s hardware development department, which also includes the development of chips for video cameras and stills. According to estimates, Sony’s development center in Israel had over 200 employees, who await an announcement on capital raising to found Altair, and who will remain and who will be need to find a new job.

No response has been forthcoming from ARM or Sony.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 27, 2026.

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