Yossi Cohen, Israel's Mossad chief from 2016 to 2021, was promoted to strategic advisor at SoftBank, gaining a new mandate over AI and chip investments.
Yossi Cohen, who directed Israel's Mossad from 2016 to 2021, has been promoted to strategic advisor at SoftBank, a role that moves him closer to founder and CEO Masayoshi Son with a new mandate covering artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and data centers, Globes reported on August 18, 2026. The promotion places a former intelligence chief inside SoftBank's senior decision-making circle at the exact moment the fund is leaning harder into AI infrastructure bets.
What Changed in Yossi Cohen's Role at SoftBank?
Cohen moves from managing SoftBank's Israel office to a strategic advisor title that reports closer to Son himself, according to Globes. He will keep operating in the Israeli market but his remit now expands into financing and developing AI data centers, cloud processing infrastructure, and semiconductor investments, areas that sit outside his previous, Israel-only scope. Neither Cohen nor SoftBank responded to Globes' request for comment on the appointment.
Who Is Yossi Cohen?
Cohen was born in Jerusalem in 1961 and served in the Israel Defense Forces' Airborne Nahal Brigade, fighting in the First Lebanon War, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. He joined the Mossad in 1983 as a case officer specializing in human intelligence and rose to head the agency's Tzomet Division, which recruits and runs field officers worldwide, per the same source. Cohen won two Israel Defense Prizes, in 2003 and 2006, for his work in covert operations, and was appointed Deputy Director of the Mossad in 2011. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named him National Security Advisor in 2013, a post he held until his appointment as Mossad Director in January 2016, according to Grokipedia and the Weizmann Institute's International Board biography.
As director, Cohen personally oversaw the 2018 operation that seized Iran's nuclear archive, a raid in which Mossad agents extracted more than half a ton of documents from a Tehran warehouse, according to Grokipedia. The operation's disclosures were among the factors cited in the United States' withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, per the Jewish Book Council. In 2020, Cohen led Israel's negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, work credited with helping produce the Abraham Accords, the Jewish Book Council reported. He completed his five-year term as Mossad Director in June 2021, and that month then-CIA Director William J. Burns presented him with the George J. Tenet Award for his partnership with the CIA, according to the Weizmann Institute biography. Cohen joined SoftBank the following month, in July 2021, as head of its Israel operations under Vision Fund 2.
What Track Record Led to the Promotion?
Under Cohen, SoftBank backed three Israeli cybersecurity companies that each rose in value after investment. Claroty's valuation doubled to $4 billion following SoftBank's investment, and the company has weighed an IPO, Globes reported on August 18, 2026. Cato Networks climbed from a $3 billion valuation at SoftBank's 2023 entry to $4.8 billion, according to the same Globes report. Claroty and Cato compete in the same crowded field as independents like cloud security firm Aqua Security and Israeli cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, part of a sector Olam has reported drives an outsized share of global cybersecurity fundraising.
SoftBank's highest-profile Israeli bet from Cohen's tenure is Wiz, the cloud security company co-founded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, all four of whom previously built and sold Adallom to Microsoft for roughly $320 million in 2015, according to Tech Insider. Wiz rejected a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google in 2024 after raising $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation, Tech Insider reported, but the two companies revived talks and Google signed a definitive agreement to buy Wiz for $32 billion in cash on March 18, 2025, according to Google's own announcement. That deal closed on March 11, 2026, per a Google Cloud blog post, making it the third-largest tech acquisition in recent years behind Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal and Broadcom's $61 billion VMware purchase, Tech Insider reported. Globes notes that as of its August 18, 2026 report, Cohen has not yet led a named investment under his new, expanded title.
Why Is SoftBank Doubling Down on AI in Israel Now?
SoftBank's own numbers explain the timing. The fund reported net profit of ¥347.3 billion (about $2.2 billion) for the April-to-June 2026 quarter, an 18% year-on-year decline, with an unrealized gain of roughly $8.2 billion to $8.5 billion on its Intel stake covering much of the shortfall, NAI 500 reported following SoftBank's August 6, 2026 earnings briefing. SoftBank had invested about $2 billion in Intel in mid-2025 at $23 per share, a roughly 2% stake, and Intel shares surged 216% during the June 2026 quarter alone, according to NAI 500.
Vision Fund investment profit itself fell 65% to ¥255.7 billion (about $1.6 billion) in the same quarter, BigGo Finance reported, while SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI reached $44.6 billion with a further $10 billion planned for October 2026, bringing the eventual total to $64.6 billion. OpenAI's fair value on SoftBank's books stood at $89.6 billion as of the June 2026 quarter, unchanged from March 2026, BigGo Finance reported. A single non-AI-fund position covering a fund-level profit drop, while the AI-dedicated Vision Fund posts a 65% profit decline, is the kind of imbalance that pushes a company to widen its own sourcing pipeline rather than lean further on names already on the books. Elevating an Israel-based advisor into a global AI, chip, and data-center mandate is a direct response to that concentration.
A Second Former Mossad Director Also Moved Into Business This Month
Ondas Inc. named David Barnea, who completed his own term as Mossad director in June 2026, as Global President and Chairman of Ondas Defense on August 3, 2026, according to an Ondas press release carried by Yahoo Finance. Barnea will support Ondas' AI-enabled, multi-domain defense platform and work alongside CEO Eric Brock, the release states. The appointment fits a wider pattern Olam has tracked in Israeli defense technology exports, where systems like the combat-proven Trophy protection system already anchor Israel's reputation in the sector. Cohen and Barnea are different people who moved into private industry roles within weeks of each other, a pattern worth its own separate piece.
The Throughline
SoftBank is placing a security-cleared operator with a documented Israeli cybersecurity track record (Wiz, Claroty, Cato Networks) directly inside its AI investment decision-making, at the same quarter its own earnings show how exposed the fund is to a handful of large, non-AI-fund positions. Cohen's promotion is a small personnel change with a specific, traceable cause: SoftBank needs more AI and chip deal flow out of Israel, and his track record is the evidence it is betting on the right person to find it.
FAQ
Who is Yossi Cohen?
Yossi Cohen directed Israel's Mossad intelligence agency from January 2016 to June 2021, previously serving as Deputy Director and National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He joined SoftBank in July 2021.
What is Yossi Cohen's new role at SoftBank?
Cohen was promoted to strategic advisor at SoftBank, a role that brings him closer to founder Masayoshi Son with a mandate covering AI, semiconductor, and data-center investments, Globes reported August 18, 2026.
What deals is Yossi Cohen credited with at SoftBank?
Cohen is linked to SoftBank's investments in Wiz (acquired by Google for $32 billion in 2025-2026), Claroty (valuation doubled to $4 billion), and Cato Networks (valuation rose from $3 billion to $4.8 billion).
What did Cohen do as Mossad Director?
He oversaw the 2018 seizure of Iran's nuclear archive and led Israel's 2020 negotiations with the UAE and Bahrain that helped produce the Abraham Accords, according to the Jewish Book Council and Grokipedia.
Why did SoftBank promote Cohen now?
SoftBank's Vision Fund investment profit fell 65% in the April-June 2026 quarter even as an $8.2-8.5 billion Intel stock gain covered the shortfall, per NAI 500's coverage of SoftBank's August 6, 2026 earnings, increasing pressure to diversify AI and chip deal sourcing.