Revealing of Microsoft's cooperation with Israel during the Gaza war

According to leaked documents, the Israeli military's use of Microsoft's cloud computing and artificial intelligence systems increased during the most intense period of its bombardment of Gaza.
The documents give an inside look at how Microsoft strengthened its ties with Israel's military establishment after October 7, 2023, by negotiating at least $10 million in contracts to provide thousands of hours of technical support and providing the military with more computing and storage services.
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.
The investigation, which also draws on interviews with sources from across Israel’s military and intelligence establishment, sheds new light on how the Israel military forces turned to major US tech companies to meet the technological demands of war.
Following its October 2023 offensive in Gaza, the military forces quickly expanded their computing infrastructure and embraced what one commander called "the wonderful world of cloud providers" due to the sudden surge in demand for computing and storage power.
As a result, multiple Israeli sources said, the military has become increasingly dependent on the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google to store and analyze greater volumes of data and intelligence information for longer period.
The leaked documents, which include files from Microsoft's Israeli subsidiary and commercial records from Israel's military, indicate that units in Israel's air, ground, and naval forces as well as its intelligence directorate used Microsoft's products and services, particularly its Azure cloud computing platform.
As a trusted partner of Israel’s military, Microsoft was frequently tasked with working on sensitive and highly classified projects. Its staff also worked closely with the intelligence directorate, including its surveillance division, Unit 8200.
The disclosures about Microsoft’s deep ties to the Israel’s military and the integration of its systems in the war effort illustrate the growth of private-sector involvement in hi-tech warfare and the increasingly blurred distinctions between civilian and military digital infrastructure.
In the US, commercial ties between Israel’s military and big tech groups are coming under increasing scrutiny and have sparked protests among tech workers who fear products they build and maintain have enabled a war in Gaza in which Israel stands accused of grave violations of international humanitarian law.
An expanding collaboration
In 2021, after Microsoft failed to secure a $1.2bn deal to overhaul Israel’s public sector’s cloud computing infrastructure, its executives looked with envy at Amazon and Google, which had joined forces to win the sprawling contract, known as “Project Nimbus”.
Although undoubtedly a blow to Microsoft’s business in Israel and its place as the military’s premier cloud provider, documents suggest the company took comfort from indications from Israeli military officials that it would continue to enjoy a strong partnership with the military.
The leaked documents illustrate how the US tech behemoth supported a range of sensitive activities, including:
- Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, was used by multiple military intelligence units, including Unit 8200 and Unit 81, which develops cutting-edge spy technology for Israel’s intelligence community.
- A system Israeli security forces use to manage the population registry and movement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, known as “Rolling Stone”, was maintained using Microsoft’s technology.
- During the Gaza offensive, Microsoft’s suite of communications and messaging systems were used by Ofek, an air force unit responsible for managing large databases of potential targets for lethal strikes known as “target banks”.
According to the files, between the start of the war in October 2023 and the end of June 2024, Israel’s military agreed to buy 19,000 hours of engineering support and consultancy services from Microsoft to assist a wide range of military units. The deals appear to have generated about $10m in fees for Microsoft.
A paradigm shift
The average monthly usage of Microsoft Azure's cloud storage facilities by the Israeli military during the first six months of the conflict was 60% greater than during the four months preceding the conflict, according to an analysis of the leaked documents.
According to the documents, the military's use of Microsoft's AI-based products increased during the same time frame. The military was using 64 times more Azure's suite of machine learning tools per month by the end of March 2024 than it was in September 2023.
The military’s use of OpenAI’s products such as its GPT-4 engine – a powerful AI model designed for natural language understanding and generation – also rose sharply in the first six months of the war, files suggest. Its access to the models was made via the Azure platform rather than directly through OpenAI.
At one stage in 2024, OpenAI’s tools accounted for a quarter of the military’s consumption of machine learning tools provided by Microsoft. The company has in recent years reportedly invested $13bn in OpenAI.