Leaked documents show that the Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems increased during the heaviest phase of the bombing of Gaza.
The files provide an inside look at how Microsoft deepened its relationship with Israel’s defense establishment after October 7, 2023, providing more computing and storage services to the military and providing thousands of hours of technical support at least. Deals as low as $10 million were made.
Microsoft’s deep ties to Israel’s military were revealed in a Guardian investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. The drop is based on documents obtained by Site News, which published its own story.
The investigation, which includes interviews with sources throughout Israel’s defense and intelligence establishment, sheds new light on how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) uses major American technology to meet the technological demands of war. Companies are attracted.
After launching its offensive in Gaza in October 2023, the IDF faced a sudden rush in demand for storage and computing power, causing it to rapidly expand its computing infrastructure and embrace what one commander called “ described as “the wonderful world of cloud providers”.
As a result, several Israeli defense sources said, the IDF has come to rely on the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google to store and analyze more and more data and intelligence information over long periods of time.
The leaked documents, which include commercial records from Israel’s Ministry of Defense and files from Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary, suggest that Microsoft products and services, particularly its Azure cloud computing platform, Israel’s Air, Used by ground and naval forces as well as by its intelligence units. Directorate
While the IDF has used some Microsoft services for administrative purposes, such as email and file management systems, documents and interviews indicate that Azure has been used to support combat and intelligence activities.
As a trusted partner of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Microsoft was often tasked with working on sensitive and highly classified projects. Its staff also worked closely with the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, including its elite surveillance division, Unit 8200.
In recent years, the documents show, Microsoft has also given the Israeli military widespread access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 model – the engine behind ChatGPT – thanks to a partnership with an AI tools developer that recently I changed my policies against working with him. military and intelligence clients.
Microsoft declined to comment on the findings of the investigation or to answer questions about its work for the IDF. An IDF spokesman said: “We will not comment on this subject.” Israel’s Defense Ministry also declined to comment.
Revelations about Microsoft’s deep ties to the IDF and the integration of its systems into the war effort underscore the private sector’s involvement in high-tech warfare and the increasingly blurred distinction between civilian and military digital infrastructure.
In the US, commercial links between Israel’s military and major tech groups are coming under increasing scrutiny. It has sparked protests among tech workers who fear the products they make and maintain have sparked a war in Gaza that Israel has been accused of gross violations of international humanitarian law.
However, in a war that has become famous for the IDF’s application of new systems on the battlefield – including AI-powered target recommendation tools such as The Gospel And Lavender – The role of major US-headquartered tech companies in supporting Israel’s operations in Gaza has so far been largely overlooked.
Oh A deep partnership
In 2021, when Microsoft failed to win a $1.2bn contract to overhaul Israel’s public sector cloud computing infrastructure, its executives looked enviously at Amazon and Google, which had won the broader contract. joined forces for what is known as “Project Nimbus”.
While undoubtedly a blow to Microsoft’s business in Israel and its place as the IDF’s premier cloud provider, the documents show that the company was satisfied with indications from Israeli defense officials that it wanted a stronger partnership with the military. Will continue.
Executives hoped the relationship would continue to grow, thanks to the integration of the company’s technology and services into the most complex and secretive parts of the IDF’s operations.
The leaked documents describe how the US tech behemoth supported a range of sensitive activities, including:
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Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, was used by a number of military intelligence units, including Unit 8200 and Unit 81, which develops sophisticated spy technology for Israel’s intelligence community.
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A system by the Israeli security forces known as “Rolling Stone” was maintained using Microsoft technology to manage the registry and movement of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza.
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During the Gaza offensive, Microsoft’s communications and messaging systems were used by OFAC, the Air Force responsible for managing a large database of potential targets for deadly attacks known as the “Target Bank.” The unit is
Microsoft staff and contractors have also worked closely with military personnel throughout the IDF, providing advice and technical support remotely and on military bases.
During the Gaza offensive, Microsoft engineers Assisted IDF intelligence units such as Unit 8200 and another covert intelligence unit, Unit 9900 – which collects and analyzes visual intelligence – to use the cloud infrastructure.
Between the start of the war in October 2023 and the end of June 2024, Israel’s Defense Ministry agreed to purchase 19,000 hours of engineering support and consultancy services from Microsoft to support a wide range of IDF units, according to the files. The deals appear to have netted Microsoft around $10 million in fees.
‘A Paradigm Shift’
In a 2021 book revealed by The Guardian that he authored, the head of Unit 8200 predicted at the time that the IDF’s demand for cloud computing would push it “to their existing relationships with major arms like Microsoft and Amazon.” “Like” will partner with. Manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin.
Two years later, when Israel launched a ground offensive and air campaign in Gaza, unprecedented in speed and intensity, the IDF’s insatiable demand for bombs was matched by a need for greater access to cloud computing services.
This provided an opportunity for Microsoft to deepen its relationship with the IDF. In November 2023, the files show, Israel’s Defense Ministry approached the company to provide rapid support to the army’s central computing unit, known as Mamram.
Responsible for the military’s tech infrastructure, Mamram has been at the forefront of the IDF’s pivot to rely more on commercial cloud companies. The unit’s commander told a defense industry conference in Tel Aviv last year how the IDF’s systems were overwhelmed at the start of Israel’s ground offensive, leading the unit to draw computing power from the “civilian world.” bought
In the remarks +972 and revealed by local call.Col. Rachelle Dembinski explained that the most important advantage cloud companies provided was their “insane wealth of services,” including their cutting-edge AI capabilities. Working with these companies, he said, provided the IDF with “significant operational effectiveness” in Gaza.
Although Dembinski did not mention the names of the cloud providers the IDF now relies on, the Azure logo along with the Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud logos are prominent in his lecture slides.
According to an analysis of leaked documents, the Israeli military’s average monthly consumption of Microsoft Azure’s cloud storage facilities in the first six months of the war was 60 percent higher than in the first four months of the war.
Military consumption of Microsoft’s AI-based products also increased over the same period, the documents show. By the end of March 2024, the military’s monthly consumption of Azure’s machine learning tools was 64 times higher than in September 2023.
It was not explained exactly how the IDF used Azure’s AI-based products, but the documents show that it relies on a range of AI-powered translation and speech-to-text conversion tools. is
The files also show that a large portion of AI-based services paid for by the Defense Ministry were used by the military on so-called “air-gapped” systems disconnected from the Internet and public networks, suggesting that It is more likely that it is used for more sensitive tasks.
IDF also seems to have focused on AI-based services from Microsoft’s competitors. on wednesday, The Washington Post reported. that Google’s cloud division provided the IDF with access to its AI-based services;
The files show the military’s use of OpenAI products such as its GPT-4 engine — a powerful AI model designed for natural language understanding and generation — also in the first six months of the war. increased rapidly. The models were accessed through the Azure platform rather than directly through OpenAI.
At one point in 2024, OpenAI’s tools accounted for a quarter of the military’s consumption of Microsoft-supplied machine learning tools. The company has reportedly invested $13bn in OpenAI in recent years.
In January 2024, OpenAI Remove your restraints quietly. against the use of its services for “military and warlike” activities as part of a comprehensive rewriting of its policies. Around this time, the files show, the Israeli military’s consumption of the Azure OpenAI suite of products began to increase.
It was unclear how the military used OpenAI’s models or whether they played any role in supporting combat or intelligence activities.
Contacted for comment, OpenAI did not respond to questions about its knowledge of how the Israeli military uses its products. An OpenAI spokesperson said: “OpenAI does not have a partnership with the IDF.” He cited OpenAI’s updated usage policy, which prohibited its products from being used to “make or use weapons, injure others or destroy property.”
However, in May 2024, Microsoft began publicizing ways to integrate OpenAI’s tools into its Azure platform, offering a “paradigm shift” for defense and intelligence agencies, “enhancing human capabilities”. and “offered greater speed, accuracy, gain. and performance”.
