HWBRIEF
BofA scores 30 economies on private capital, infrastructure, energy, and minerals. Israel is strong on the first; it trails on the rest.
Bank of America has ranked 30 economies on AI readiness over the next three years. Israel is 12th, per a Calcalist write-up of the BofA special report.
The short-term list scores countries on private investment, AI startup count, infrastructure costs, government spending, labor stability, and access to the minerals that feed chip supply chains. Israel wins the first two. It trails on energy, minerals, and state investment, a gap earlier Calcalist reporting had already framed as an electricity bottleneck for the data center buildout the country is trying to fund.
South Korea ranks first in both the short- and long-term assessments, according to Ynet's coverage of the same report. The UAE leads the long-term list, powered by a 70% corporate AI adoption rate and a stated 2031 goal of becoming the world's leading AI country. That target is backed by cheap energy and state policy, the two categories Israel is short on.
The ranking is a structural map, not a verdict. Israel sits in the next tier. Closing the gap on the losing categories is a state-level bet on compute, energy, and supply chains that the startup sector alone cannot make.