Revealed: Microsoft deepened ties with Israeli military to provide tech support during Gaza war
Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Rafah,southern Gaza, early in 2025
Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham report in The Guardian on 23 January 2025:
The Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase of its bombardment of Gaza, leaked documents reveal.
The files offer an inside view of how Microsoft deepened its relationship with Israel’s defence establishment after 7 October 2023, supplying the military with greater computing and storage services and striking at least $10m in deals to provide thousands of hours of technical support.
Microsoft’s deep ties with Israel’s military are revealed in an investigation by the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and a Hebrew-language outlet, Local Call. It is based in part on documents obtained by Drop Site News, which has published its own story.
The investigation, which also draws on interviews with sources from across Israel’s defence and intelligence establishment, sheds new light on how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) turned to major US tech companies to meet the technological demands of war.
After launching its offensive in Gaza in October 2023, the IDF faced a sudden rush in demand for storage and computing power, leading it to swiftly expand its computing infrastructure and embrace what one commander described as “the wonderful world of cloud providers”. As a result, multiple Israeli defence sources said, the IDF has become increasingly dependent on the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google to store and analyse greater volumes of data and intelligence information for longer period.