“Israeli”-American Energy Tech Firm Inks Investment Deal with Saudi Group

By Staff, Agencies

“Israeli”-founded smart energy tech firm SolarEdge Technologies signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Ajlan & Bros Holding Group Abilitii, a private sector conglomerate based in Riyadh, on the sidelines of US President Joe Biden’s visit to the kingdom on Friday and Saturday.

Based in Herzliya and with US headquarters in California, SolarEdge, which is traded on the Nasdaq and is listed in the S&P 500 index, was one of 13 “leading US companies” to sign investment agreements with Saudi entities, the kingdom’s Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia [MISA] said in a statement posted Saturday [without mentioning the company’s “Israeli” roots].

The Circuit, a Jewish Insider publication, first reported the existence of the investments deals on Sunday.

A person familiar with the SolarEdge agreement told The Circuit that the ministry announcement was “accurate.”

SolarEdge and Ajlan & Bros are slated to “explore investment in renewable energy,” according to the Saudi ministry, which also said the 13 agreements “cover a range of sectors including energy, aerospace, defense, textiles, manufacturing, education and tourism” and “build upon a longstanding economic relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the US.

One of the agreements include a partnership between the ministry and aerospace giant Boeing “in areas relating to aircraft manufacturing.”

SolarEdge was founded in 2006, seeking to make solar energy more affordable and widespread. It developed an inverter solution for harvesting and managing power in solar photovoltaic [PV] systems. In 2010, the company commercialized its SolarEdge direct current [DC] optimized inverter system to increase power generation and lower the cost of energy produced by the solar PV system.

As of July, the company has a market cap of $14.72 billion and is considered among the most-valuable Israeli companies, alongside NICE Systems and cybersecurity giant Check Point Software Technologies.

The SolarEdge deal is the first known public agreement between an “Israeli” company and a Saudi entity.