Dream Raises $260 Million for Government-Focused AI Cybersecurity

Dream, an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity company for governments, raised $260 million, according to a Thursday (June 18) LinkedIn post.

The new funding values the Israeli company at $3 billion, per the post. It was led by Group 11 and Bicycle Capital.

“Governments spent the last century building roads, grids and defense systems they owned outright,” the post said. “AI is the next layer. This round is about making sure they can own that one too, turning nations into super nations.”

The new funding will let Dream “accelerate deployment of the company’s sovereign AI and national cyber defense platforms across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas,” Co-Founder Sebastian Kurz said in a Thursday Bloomberg News report. “Especially in Europe, there’s much need to prepare for these new threats.”

Dream is also launching a custom AI platform for governments and state-owned companies that are hoping to gain greater control over their data and infrastructure, according to the report.

“As AI becomes central to national security, economy and public services, governments face a fundamental choice: depend on systems they do not control from the U.S. or China, for example, or build capabilities they fully own,” said Co-Founder Shalev Hulio, per the report. “Dream was founded to eliminate that trade-off.”

The issue of tech sovereignty took on more importance last week, when the White House banned foreign nationals from using Anthropic’s newest AI models, the report said.

Hulio called the moment “a wake-up call for all nations to understand that if they want to move to AI, they can’t rely on foreign model clouds or tools,” per the report

In a LinkedIn post on the Anthropic ban, Hulio said the government’s move would “accelerate one of the biggest shifts in modern history,” and the ban made sense, given that governments wouldn’t accept having their financial or defense systems controlled by someone else.

“Smart governments no longer see AI as software,” Hulio said in the post. “They see it as critical infrastructure. And critical infrastructure must remain available when it matters most. This isn’t the end of a story. It’s the beginning of a global race toward sovereign AI.”

Dream was valued at $1 billion last year after raising $100 million in a Series B funding round.