FUSE, the autonomy unit of Israeli defense group Elbit Systems, has acquired Bluewhite, a Tel Aviv company that makes kits and software that let off-road vehicles drive themselves. Elbit announced on 27 May 2026 that FUSE had completed the purchase of 100% of the shares of Blue White Robotics Ltd., the startup's legal name.
Neither company disclosed a price. Calcalist reported that Elbit, which is listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and valued at about $40 billion, did not file an official report on the transaction.
Bluewhite's technology will become part of FUSE's autonomy business, which already covers unmanned aircraft and drone swarms. Bluewhite chief executive Ben Alfi said joining FUSE and Elbit would let the company take its ground autonomy to scale across defense, security and industrial uses.
What Bluewhite built
Bluewhite was founded in 2017 by Ben Alfi, Yair Shahar and Aviram Shmueli, who serve as chief executive, chief operating officer and chief technology officer respectively, according to Calcalist. It sells two main products. Pathfinder is a kit fitted to conventional vehicles so they can operate without a driver, and Elbit said it works regardless of the vehicle's manufacturer. Compass is cloud software for running fleets of those vehicles.
The company started in farming. When it raised money in January 2024, Robotics 24/7 reported that Bluewhite worked with more than 20 large permanent-crop growers in the United States and had logged more than 50,000 hours of autonomous farming across 150,000 acres in California and Washington, in crops such as nuts, berries, apples, grapes and hops. Its retrofitted tractors handled seeding, spraying, mowing and harvesting, and it described itself as a robotics-as-a-service business.
By the time of the sale, Elbit said, Bluewhite's systems had passed 100,000 cumulative hours of autonomous operation on agricultural and defense platforms. Elbit put the technology at readiness levels 8 to 9, the top of the scale used to rate how proven a system is, and said it had been deployed in both civilian and military markets.
“Our mission has always been to bring practical autonomy to the field. By joining forces with FUSE and Elbit Systems, we gain a unique platform to bring our AI-driven ground autonomy technology to scale across defense, security and industrial applications.”
Why Elbit is buying
Elbit said the deal adds ground vehicles to FUSE's aerial and swarm technologies and strengthens its ability to sell robotic systems and manned-unmanned teaming, in which crewed and uncrewed vehicles work together, to defense and homeland security customers worldwide. Calcalist described the purchase as part of a wider push by Elbit into autonomous warfare technology.
FUSE chief executive Eyal Dahan said in the announcement that autonomy and robotics were changing how armed forces operate and that modern battlefields need robotics to be adopted on a large scale. He said integrating Bluewhite would let FUSE offer autonomous systems across air, land and indoor settings.
Elbit is one of Israel's largest companies. It says it employs more than 21,000 people in dozens of countries, and it reported revenue of $2,287.1 million for the three months to 30 June 2026, with an order backlog of $32.0 billion.
The founders and the funding
Bluewhite raised a $39 million Series C in January 2024 led by Insight Partners. Alumni Ventures and LIP Ventures joined as new investors, and existing backers Entrée Capital, Jesselson and Peregrine Ventures also took part, Robotics 24/7 reported. Calcalist put Bluewhite's total funding at $89 million.
At the time of the Series C, the company said it would use the money to scale its autonomous tractors and expand into new markets. It also forecast that the global market for autonomous tractors would reach $11.5 billion by 2030. Neither Elbit nor Bluewhite said what the sale returned to investors.
A busy market for defense autonomy
The deal was one of several in which defense companies bought autonomy and unmanned-systems businesses in the first half of 2026. The Defense Post listed Mach Industries' purchase of propulsion company Exquadrum in May, Red Cat Holdings' acquisition of Apium Swarm Robotics in April to add swarming to its drones, and Ondas's merger with Mistral in March to reach US Army and Special Operations contract vehicles.
The photograph Elbit released with the announcement showed a Bluewhite autonomy kit fitted to a BL Advance Systems BLR MK2 vehicle. Elbit did not say whether Bluewhite would keep selling its agricultural products to growers.
