Members of Unit 8200 of the Israeli Army, known for its advanced cybersecurity and cyberwarfare capabilities, have founded dozens of cybersecurity companies in the United States. Others have become influential venture capitalists in their own rights and are mentors to entrepreneurial graduates.  There are at least five tech companies started by Unit 8200 alumni publicly traded in the U.S., together worth around $160 billion. Private companies started by ex-8200 soldiers are worth billions more.  The largest, cloud-security company Wiz, in July 2024 came close to signing a $23 billion deal to be bought by Google. It would have been Google’s biggest acquisition ever. After the talks fell apart, Wiz Chief Executive and 8200 veteran Assaf Rappaport told employees he wants to hit $1 billion in revenue before planning a public-market listing. 

Wiz and the 8200 alumni are targeting a massive business problem—how to keep big companies secure—with skills and an intensity they learned from their time in the military. They and the companies they’ve built have become hot commodities as more industries move huge amounts of business documents to the cloud—which is constantly under attack from opportunistic hackers. While Unit 8200 alumni once talked about their service in hushed tones, they now tout it in press releases to attract clients and investment money for their startups.

Palo Alto Networks, the biggest publicly traded cybersecurity company, and itself a product of the 8200 pipeline, has purchased several companies led by alumni of the unit in recent years. Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital, two of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture-capital firms, have recently hired Israel-based partners…

Elsewhere, alumni of other Israeli military units founded cybersecurity company NSO Group. It created software called Pegasus, which has been used by governments to access the devices of journalists and embassy workers, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department put NSO Group on an export prohibition list three years ago, a decision its executives are working to reverse. This means exports from the U.S. to the company of both hardware and software will be blocked, unless the Commerce Department grants a license for a transaction.  

Excerpt from Miles Kruppa and Alex Perry, Silicon Valley in Love with Israeli Army, WSJ, Aug. 31, 2024