Israeli tech downturn is forcing cuts in corporate catering too

May 2026 is shaping up as one of the harshest months for Israeli tech since the COVID-19 era, with layoffs, cuts and restructurings rippling beyond programmers and startups into catering companies and kitchen staff. For years, high-tech cafeterias were seen as a dream market for the restaurant industry, with firms such as Microsoft, Amdocs, Rapid and Wix competing on branded food, upscale dining halls and celebrity chefs including Moshik Roth, Asaf Granit and Chaim Cohen.

That picture is now changing. Wix announced the biggest move, cutting about 20% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 employees. Rapid has announced a restructuring with layoffs and reductions, and Amdocs has unveiled an efficiency plan that is likely to include hundreds of job cuts in Israel. The wave has also brought benefit cuts, and at Wix, catering manager Ron Biela, who is Asaf Granit’s business partner, informed kitchen workers by email that the campus restaurants would be changed and dozens of catering employees would have to go.

The pressure is reaching suppliers too. One vendor said he was recently told to cancel an order for one of the country’s largest tech catering groups, even after 50% of the payment had already been made. According to an industry source, the language inside catering companies has shifted from hiring and perks to efficiency, cuts and reexamining expenses, and tech firms are now scrutinizing every budget line. Food is still important, but “not at any price,” the source said.

Microsoft Israel is another example of the trend. After years of catering by Chaim Cohen’s group, its operation was handed over to the Machneyuda group and Asaf Granit. Cohen told ynet that Microsoft asked his team to halve meal costs, calling it “crazy,” and said some tech companies are cutting workers and deciding it is no longer worthwhile to stay in some campuses.

For years, these kitchens offered cooks what restaurants rarely could, regular daytime hours, no nights, holidays or weekends, better pay and social benefits, and more stable conditions. That drew many cooks into tech cafeterias and turned catering firms into major employers. Restaurant veterans say fewer jobs in tech kitchens will not solve the broader staffing crisis in restaurants, though it may ease it slightly.