Google just committed $1 million to expand its AI research partnership with Tel Aviv University through 2028, marking a significant investment in foundational AI research and academic collaboration. The three-year funding from Google.org builds on a successful partnership that has already produced over 20 research projects since 2020, spanning AI for social good, sustainability, and education.
Google is doubling down on academic AI research with a major expansion of its Tel Aviv University partnership. The tech giant announced today it's committing $1 million through Google.org to fund a three-year research collaboration running from 2026 to 2028, significantly expanding what has already been one of the company's most productive academic partnerships.
The announcement comes as tech companies increasingly look to universities for breakthrough AI research that might not emerge from corporate labs. Google's partnership with TAU's Center for AI and Data Science has already produced impressive results since its 2020 launch, generating over 20 research projects ranging from educational values in large language models to using AI for wastewater treatment optimization.
Leslie Yeh, Director of Scientific Progress at Google.org, emphasized the partnership's focus on "driving scientific discovery and empowering the next generation of AI researchers." The funding targets four critical research areas that could reshape how AI systems operate: making AI more efficient and sustainable, building multilingual and multicultural AI systems, exploring quantum computing applications, and advancing privacy-preserving AI techniques.
But this isn't just theoretical research. Google Research teams are launching immediate collaborative projects with TAU researchers on pressing topics like GenAI evaluation methods and AI applications for climate and weather research. One particularly ambitious project aims to create the first-ever global map of flower colors for conservation efforts using machine learning - the kind of interdisciplinary work that's difficult to pursue within traditional corporate research constraints.
The partnership reflects Google's broader strategy of investing in external research capabilities while maintaining access to cutting-edge academic talent. Prof. Yossi Matias, Vice President of Google and Head of Google Research, noted that "the biggest challenges can only be solved when we work together," highlighting how academic partnerships complement internal research efforts.
