Intel on Sunday announced a program to accelerate early-stage startup companies in Israel targeting key industry inflection points, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems and other data-centric technologies and business models.

Based in Tel Aviv, the program called Ignite will provide early-stage startups with advantages on their paths to disrupt the future. Following a selection process, Intel will host 10 to 15 top pre-seed to seed startups through a 20-week program where they will receive hands-on mentorship from Intel and industry experts in a variety of product, business, management and technical areas.

“Intel has always worked in concert with open ecosystems to scale new technologies so they can be transformational for our customers, business and society. This process is fueled by the innovation and passion of the startup community,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Israel has the deep skill base in AI, autonomous systems and the underlying technologies critical to these inflections that make it a natural choice to launch our Ignite program.”

The Ignite program will begin operations in Israel this year, with plans to scale to additional countries over time. Intel said that diversity will be an important guiding principle of Ignite, with startups established, owned and run by different representatives of Israel’s diversified social mix. Intel calso clarified that it has no plans to seek equity in or rights to intellectual property from these companies.

Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, former global head of Microsoft for Startups, will serve as general manager and managing director of Ignite, reporting to Yaniv Garty, general manager of Intel Israel. Weisfeld will be assisted by Avner Goren, Intel vice president in the Architecture, Graphics and Software Group, who will connect the Ignite program to the technical community inside Intel.

Intel is one of the biggest employers and exporters in Israel, where many of its new technologies are developed, and this year said it was investing 40 billion shekels ($11 billion) to expand its manufacturing operations there.

Intel paid $15.3 billion to buy Israeli autonomous-vehicle technology company Mobileye two years ago.

Last month, the U.S. Commerce Department added Huawei Technologies Co to its so-called “Entity List” - a move that bans the telecom giant from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.

China is an important market for Intel and Huawei is a large customer.