Silicon Wadi

Silicon Wadi (Hebrew: סיליקון ואדי‎‎, lit: "Silicon Valley") is an area with a high concentration of high-tech industries in the coastal plain of Israel, similar to Silicon Valley in the U.S. state of California. The area covers much of the country, although especially high concentrations of hi-tech industry can be found in the area around Tel Aviv, including small clusters around the cities of Ra'anana, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Netanya, the academic city of Rehovot and its neighbour Rishon Le Zion. In addition, hi-tech clusters can be found in Haifa and Caesarea. More recent hi-tech establishments have been raised in Jerusalem, and in towns such as Yokneam Illit and Israel's first "private city," Airport City, near Tel Aviv.

Silicon Wadi is a pun based on the Californian region of Silicon Valley. "Wadi" is the Arabic word for a valley or dry river bed, also commonly used in colloquial Hebrew.

Israeli hi-tech firms originally began to form in the 1960s. In 1961 ECI Telecom was founded, followed in 1962 by Tadiran and Elron Electronic Industries regarded by many to be the "Fairchild of Israel." The number of internationally successful firms grew slowly, with only one or two new successful firms each year until the early 1990s. Motorola was the first US corporation to set up an R&D unit in Israel, in 1964. The center initially developed wireless products including remote irrigation systems and later developed leading chips such as the 68030. Following the 1967 French arms embargo, Israel was forced to develop a domestic military industry, focusing on developing a technological edge over its neighbors. Some of these military firms started to seek and develop civilian applications of military technology. In the 1970s more commercial innovations began, many of which were based on military R&D, including: Scitex digital printing systems, which were based on fast rotation drums from fast-rotation electronic warfare systems, and Elscint, which developed innovative medical imaging and became a leading force in its market.

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