Miami-Dade: $6B, 2.78% of GDP. Palm Beach: 30% wage premium. Orange: 51% above regional. Tampa: FIBA + XTEND + StemRad. The Florida–Israel corridor county by county.
The Florida–Israel corridor generates $7.3 billion in economic output across 429 Israeli-founded companies. But the number is a statewide aggregate — and the corridor doesn't work like a statewide phenomenon. It works like a geography. The economic impact concentrates in a handful of counties, each with its own profile: different sectors, different wage premiums, different roles in the corridor's architecture. Here is the county-by-county picture, drawn from the United States–Israel Business Alliance's Florida–Israel Economic Impact Report and the 5W Israeli Tech in Florida study.
Miami-Dade County: $6 Billion and 2.78% of GDP
Miami-Dade is the corridor's center of gravity. Israeli-founded companies in the county account for more than $6 billion in gross economic output — 2.78% of Miami-Dade's entire GDP. Average wages at Israeli-founded firms in Miami-Dade run 18% above the county average. More than 86% of all Florida jobs created by Israeli-founded companies are concentrated in four congressional districts — Districts 24, 27, 26, and 22 — all located in the South Florida corridor anchored by Miami-Dade.
The county's concentration reflects both pull and infrastructure. Miami International Airport offers nonstop El Al service to Tel Aviv. The Greater Miami Jewish Federation counts 130,100 Jews in Miami-Dade — a community that grew 7% in the past decade. The Aventura–Sunny Isles–North Miami Beach corridor is dense with Israeli-owned businesses, kosher restaurants, synagogues, and day schools. For an Israeli founder choosing a U.S. headquarters, Miami-Dade offers customers, capital, community, and a direct flight home.
Major Israeli-founded companies in Miami-Dade include Adam Neumann's Flow (the $200 million Wynwood deal), Lendai (cross-border mortgage fintech, Miami office from 2021), and dozens of cybersecurity, fintech, and healthtech firms that entered through the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator pipeline and expanded south.
Palm Beach County: 760 Jobs, 30% Wage Premium
Palm Beach County is the corridor's capital layer. The county is home to 760 jobs at Israeli-founded companies, with average earnings of $87,400 — 30% above the county average. The wage premium reflects the sector mix: Israeli companies in Palm Beach tend toward financial services, family office operations, and high-end real estate development rather than the technology startups that dominate Miami-Dade.
The migration of hedge funds, family offices, and financial firms from New York to Palm Beach over the past decade brought Israeli and Jewish capital alongside it. BH Group's Ritz-Carlton Residences at 1717 N. Flagler in West Palm Beach — a 138-unit waterfront luxury tower developed by Israeli-born Isaac Toledano in partnership with Related Group — is one visible marker of Israeli development capital in the county.
Orange County (Orlando): $96,600 Average Salary, 51% Above Regional
Orange County — Orlando's backyard — shows the most dramatic wage premium in the USIBA data. Israeli-founded firms in the county pay an average salary of $96,600, a staggering 51% above the regional average. The number signals that Israeli companies in Orlando are concentrated in high-skill, high-value sectors: defense technology, simulation, enterprise software, and healthtech — not the hospitality and tourism economy that defines Orlando's broader labor market.
El Al operated seasonal summer service to Orlando International Airport (MCO) beginning in 2019, a route designed for tourism but also useful for the engineering and defense-tech corridor connected to the simulation industry around Research Parkway and Central Florida's military installations.
Broward County: The Bridge Between Miami and Palm Beach
Broward County — Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura's northern edge — is home to a Jewish community of approximately 230,000, according to El Al's market analysis when the airline launched its Fort Lauderdale–Tel Aviv nonstop route. Momentis Surgical, one of two Israeli-founded unicorns on the USIBA Florida roster, operates its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary from Fort Lauderdale.
El Al added nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to Tel Aviv in 2023, bringing the combined weekly South Florida schedule to seven flights — effectively daily service between the corridor and Israel. The FLL route was explicitly a community play: Broward's Jewish and Israeli population justified a second South Florida gateway, not just a redundancy with MIA.
Hillsborough County (Tampa): The Defense and Production Anchor
Tampa doesn't show up as a headline number in the USIBA data the way Miami-Dade and Palm Beach do. But Hillsborough County plays a structural role in the corridor that the output figures alone don't capture. Tampa is home to the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA), the non-profit that has supported 100+ Israeli companies entering the U.S. market. It is home to XTEND's NDAA-compliant drone production facility — the manufacturing base for a $1.5 billion Nasdaq-listed defense-tech company. It is home to StemRad's U.S. subsidiary, which co-developed radiation protection vests with Lockheed Martin for NASA's Artemis program.
Tampa's advantage is military. MacDill Air Force Base hosts U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). For Israeli defense technology companies seeking Pentagon contracts, proximity to these commands shortens the sales cycle. The pattern forming in Tampa: Miami for capital, Tampa for manufacturing and defense.
The Map as a Whole
Five counties. Five roles. Miami-Dade is the commercial engine — $6 billion, 2.78% of GDP, the densest Israeli business and community footprint. Palm Beach is the capital layer — family offices, financial services, 30% wage premium. Orange County is the high-skill outlier — 51% above regional average, defense and simulation economy. Broward is the bridge — Momentis Surgical, 230,000 Jews, the FLL–TLV route. Tampa is the production and defense anchor — FIBA, XTEND, StemRad, CENTCOM.
Together: $7.3 billion, 429 companies, 26,510 jobs, and a corridor that runs 400 miles from Tampa to Palm Beach.
This article is part of Olam's Florida–Israel section — ongoing reporting and research on the capital, companies, and community building the Florida–Israel corridor.
Related on Olam
- Florida Is Israel's New American Address
- Florida–Israel Tech: The 429 Companies and Seven Sectors
- BH Group: Isaac Toledano
- Momentis Surgical
- The Florida-Israel Business Accelerator
Olam and 5W AI Communications share common ownership. Olam reports independently on the Israeli economy, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Olam's editorial team.
Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.
