Israeli edge AI chipmaker Hailo today announced it is laying off 110 employees, representing about 50% of the company’s workforce. The streamlining comes as the company strives to stabilize its financial situation and become a leaner and more efficient enterprise for investors and potential buyers.

At the same time, Delek Automotive Systems (TASE: DLEA) has announced that it will write off most of its investment in Hailo, which was worth NIS 197 million at the end of March 2026. All this comes after Halo announced that it was not making progress on its planned SPAC merger and that it had no other merger plans.

The company said, "Hailo's core products have already reached commercial maturity and are distributed by a global network of partners, allowing it to cut internal support teams and shift focus to emerging physical AI markets, such as robotics and drones, while abandoning areas where the adoption rate of the technology has been slower than expected."

Founded by veterans of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, Hailo develops and manufactures AI chips and processors for edge devices. Unlike AI models that run on data centers in the cloud, Hailo's processors allow AI and GenAI applications to run locally on smart devices such as security cameras, drones, autonomous vehicles, robots and PCs. This solution saves energy consumption, cuts costs and eliminates dependence on a continuous Internet connection.

For years, Hailo was considered a great promise in the Israeli chip industry, and in particular in the auto-tech industry. Since its inception, the company has raised $340 million, and in 2021 it raised funds for the first time at a company valuation of over $1 billion. Hailo's most recent major financing round was completed in April 2024, when it raised $120 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion with the participation of prominent investors, including the Zisapel family, Alfred Akirov and Gil Agmon.

However, in the past 18 months, Hailo has found itself in a crisis due to changes in the global market and a significant increase in competition. The company has burned through cash at a rapid pace, and at the beginning of the year was forced to take out an emergency loan of $12 million from interested parties at a high interest rate.

Due to financial pressure and changing market conditions, the company signed a memorandum of understanding in April of this year to merge with a SPAC company and list on Wall Street, at a valuation of less than $500 million.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 8, 2026.

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