Israeli firm Techtonic is to build an underground data center in Bet Shemesh, a city 20km east of Jerusalem.
The company this week announced that it will build a new data center in Beit Shemesh's Brosh industrial zone.
The 16MW facility – referred to as Titan 4 on the company’s LinkedIn – will be an underground facility expected to occupy an area of 15,000 square meters (161,450 sq ft) across 10 data halls and built to Tier IV standards.
Techtonic said it would be investing ‘hundreds of millions NIS’ ($55m+) in the project, and the facility will reportedly be able to survive a direct long-range missile hit.
The project is reportedly ‘in an advanced statutory stage aimed at receiving a full construction permit’ and currently estimated for completion in Q2 2025.
Gad Benett, founder, and CEO of Techtonic said: "The accelerated migration to the cloud has created vast demand for data centers. Yet many organizations still have doubts about physical safety, especially when it comes to highly exposed above-ground data centers. In response, Techtonic’s data center will be a secure, fortified underground hosting facility and among the most advanced in the country."
Founded in 2021, this is the company’s first project. CEO Benett has been a managing partner at a patent attorney for almost 20 years and previously worked at Autodesk. COO and co-founder Adam Benett previously co-founded local real estate company Axis.
Eliel Schleider, who oversees procurement and licensing at Techtonic, added: “Despite the tough competition for electricity allocation, our advanced planning stage allowed us to receive the connection approval for two electricity lines (mainline and backup) of 16MW. As a result, we are able to proceed quickly in the construction of the data center. We are proud to play a key role in building Israel’s most fortified and safe private data center, and set a new standard of security and quality.”
Bynet Data Communications has previously built an underground data center for Oracle in Jerusalem. In 2021 a group of companies were planning an underground data center in the northern city of Afula.