Registry · ATCO A
Does Atlas Copco support Israel?
Atlas Copco AB
Atlas Copco does business in Israel — we found records of its operations there, but no record of donations, aid, or a public statement of support. Every claim below links to its source.
Filed under: Tech companies · Companies that support Israel
Background
Atlas Copco AB is a Swedish industrial group listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (ATCO A / ATCO B), with revenues of SEK 168 billion and about 56,000 employees in 2025, organised in four business areas: Compressor Technique, Vacuum Technique, Industrial Technique and Power Technique. It has no parent company. Its own Annual Report 2025 describes Investor AB, the Wallenberg family holding company, as its largest shareholder, controlling roughly 22% of the voting rights, and records no transactions with it during the year; a controlling shareholder is not a parent, so no ownership is published here. Everything alleged about Atlas Copco and Israel traces back to one original witness, the Israeli advocacy research centre Who Profits. The Don't Buy Into Occupation coalition's 2021 report cites only the Who Profits profile for its Atlas Copco section, the American Friends Service Committee's Investigate database cites the Who Profits profile and its A1 train report, and the Swedish campaign group Palestinagrupperna and a 2025 written question in the Swedish Riksdag restate the same material. Those are restatements, not corroboration, and more than one of them overstates its source. The Don't Buy Into Occupation report says that in 2018 Atlas Copco won a tender to provide equipment for the Israeli army, and Palestinagrupperna writes that the company ‘har försett israeliska armén med utrustning till militärposteringar på Västbanken’ — has supplied the Israeli army with equipment for military posts in the West Bank. The Who Profits page they rest on says only that the Israeli Ministry of Defense published a contract asking for Atlas Copco equipment — a procurement notice naming a brand, with no supplier identified. No Atlas Copco army contract is recorded here. Who Profits also notes a 2019 sighting of Atlas Copco equipment at the Qalandiya checkpoint, and says the company's Israeli distributor worked on a project in the Kochav HaShahar settlement and in the Atarot industrial zone in occupied East Jerusalem; neither entry carries a citation, and that entry does not name the distributor, though the profile's Partners section names M.bar Maintenance Ltd as Atlas Copco's exclusive Israeli distributor and reports that M.bar's own website claims exclusivity in ‘Israel and the West Bank’. Neither entry is treated as an Atlas Copco action. The same Partners section records that in 2015 M.Bar, the Israeli importer of Atlas Copco equipment, held an Atlas Copco equipment training day for Kfar Giladi Quarries, which operates the Yatir quarry in the occupied West Bank, following a purchase of Atlas Copco air compressors — the most concrete settlement-adjacent item on the profile, and the importer's act rather than Atlas Copco's, which is why it is not recorded as evidence here. Atlas Copco's own website names its authorised Israeli distributors as M.Bar Maintenance and S.AL Technical Equipment. Who Profits marks its profile valid to 03/08/2022 and AFSC marks its entry valid as of 8 August 2022, so none of this material has been refreshed since. Atlas Copco does not appear in the UN Human Rights Council's database of businesses tied to Israeli settlements (A/HRC/60/19), is not named in the Special Rapporteur's 2025 report A/HRC/59/23 — which does name Sweden's Volvo Group — and is not on BDS Sverige's or Proletären's boycott lists or on Wikipedia's list of companies involved in the Gaza war. A University of California, Irvine student-government resolution in February 2021 named it among companies it asked the university to divest from. No donation, humanitarian pledge, sponsorship, political contribution or public statement by Atlas Copco concerning Israel has been documented; the Group's global community programme is Water for All, which funds clean-water access and matches employee donations at twice the amount given.
Who Profits — Atlas Copco company profile Atlas Copco Group — Annual Report 2025 (Investor AB shareholding; Epiroc distribution; business areas) Don't Buy Into Occupation coalition — 2021 report (archived copy; Atlas Copco section, footnote 212) AFSC Investigate — Atlas Copco AB Sveriges riksdag — written question 2024/25:1292, Håkan Svenneling (V) Palestinagrupperna i Sverige — Svenska banker och företag inblandade i Israels ockupation (12 October 2021)
Timeline of documented records
Documented records
| Type | Date | Amount | Recipient | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations in Israel | 2025 | — | Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, Kiryat Gat — Atlas Copco Group's own Israeli company Atlas Copco Group's own Annual Report 2025 lists exactly one group company in Israel: Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, in Kiryat Gat. It appears in note A22, ‘Related parties’, which the report says covers the parent company's subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures. Edwards is one of the trade names of the Group's Vacuum Technique business area, alongside Leybold, CTI and Polycold, and Edwards' own website states that ‘Edwards is part of the Atlas Copco Group (NASDAQ OMX Stockholm: ATCO A, ATCO B)’ and gives its Israel office as Sderot HaBarzel 5, Kiryat Gat. This is Atlas Copco Group itself trading in Israel through a company it owns, rather than through a third-party distributor. It is commercial activity — not a donation, aid or a statement of support. | |
| Operations in Israel | 2026-09 | — | — Atlas Copco's own market page for Israel states that Atlas Copco in Israel provides compressors, power tools, vacuum pumps and construction equipment, plus service plans, through its official distributors in four business areas — Compressor Technique, Industrial Technique, Vacuum Technique and Construction Technique — and that the business is covered by selected distributors under the supervision of Atlas Copco Hellas, the Group's Greek company, and of the Group. A companion page names the authorised Power Technique distributors: M.BAR MAINTENANCE LTD of Caesarea, for mobile compressors, generators, light towers and service, and S.AL Technical Equipment Ltd of Ashdod, for pumps and service. The same pages list Atlas Copco's own commercial contacts for compressed air and for vacuum on Israeli mobile numbers. Selling and servicing industrial equipment in a country is commerce; nothing on these pages is a donation, an aid pledge or a political statement. | |
| Government contract | 2022 | ₪210,000 | Israel Police (supplied by Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group subsidiary in Kiryat Gat) Who Profits, an Israeli advocacy research centre, records that in 2022 Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd — the Atlas Copco Group company in Kiryat Gat — was engaged by the Israel Police, on an exemption from tender, to maintain a vacuum metal deposition (VMD) system for NIS 210,000, with the engagement period ending in 2025. This is the subsidiary's own commercial supply contract with a government customer, not a donation or gift, and the customer is the police rather than the military. Who Profits neither publishes nor links the underlying Israeli procurement notice; a search of the government tenders portal did not return it, so the figure rests on Who Profits' compilation alone. No US-dollar equivalent is given because the source states no contract date against which an official Bank of Israel shekel rate could be cited. | One source |
| Government contract | 2022 | ₪150,000 | Israel Police (supplied by Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group subsidiary in Kiryat Gat) A second 2022 engagement recorded by Who Profits: Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group company in Kiryat Gat, was contracted by the Israel Police to provide maintenance services for a metal-coating device for NIS 150,000, with the period ending in 2024. As with the other police engagements, this is the Israeli subsidiary's commercial service contract with a government customer. The figure comes from Who Profits' compilation, which does not cite or link the underlying procurement notice, and no US-dollar equivalent is given because the source gives no contract date for an official shekel rate. | One source |
| Government contract | 2019 | ₪250,000 | Israel Police (supplied by Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group subsidiary in Kiryat Gat) From 2019 until 2022, according to Who Profits, Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd — the Atlas Copco Group company in Kiryat Gat — held an exemption-from-tender engagement with the Israel Police to maintain a vacuum metal deposition (VMD) metal coater, for NIS 250,000. That relationship has ended. Who Profits lists a further exemption-from-tender engagement over the same 2019-2022 period, for maintenance services and spare parts for a metal coater, with no figure attached; it may describe this same engagement, so it is not recorded separately here. The amounts come from Who Profits' compilation, which does not publish the underlying procurement notices, and no US-dollar equivalent is given because no contract date is stated for an official shekel rate. | One source |
| Government contract | 2015 | ₪180,000 | Israel Police (supplied by Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group subsidiary in Kiryat Gat) The earliest of the police engagements Who Profits records: from 2015 until 2018, Edwards Israel Vacuum Ltd, the Atlas Copco Group company in Kiryat Gat, held an exemption-from-tender engagement with the Israel Police to provide vacuum metal deposition maintenance services for NIS 180,000. The relationship has ended. Taken together with the later engagements, Who Profits' compilation describes a supplier relationship between this Atlas Copco subsidiary and the Israel Police running from 2015 to 2025 — commercial supply of laboratory equipment maintenance, not aid or a donation. The figures are Who Profits' own, unaccompanied by the procurement notices, and no US-dollar equivalent is given because no contract date is stated for an official shekel rate. | One source |
| Operations in Israel | 2013-04 | — | — In April 2013, Who Profits researchers at the construction site of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed railway (the A1 line) documented that the locomotive at the head of the emergency recovery system at the entrance to Tunnel No. 3 had been supplied by Atlas Copco: a DHD 35 diesel locomotive built by GIA Industri AB, then part of Atlas Copco's underground rock excavation division. Who Profits' point is that the A1 route crosses the Green Line into the occupied West Bank in two places. Two limits belong on this record. It is a field observation of equipment and logos at a site, not a contract or an invoice, and no supply agreement has been confirmed by Atlas Copco or Israel Railways. And that division is no longer part of the company: Atlas Copco demerged its mining and rock excavation business as Epiroc AB, distributed to shareholders on 18 June 2018 — a date its own Annual Report 2025 still records — and that report shows four business areas with no rock excavation business and no GIA company among them. Later accounts of this episode — the Don't Buy Into Occupation coalition's 2021 report, AFSC's Investigate database, Swedish campaign material — restate Who Profits rather than reporting it independently. |
Frequently asked questions
Did Atlas Copco donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?
We have no records of donations. What is on record is commercial activity in Israel (Operations in Israel, Government contract), which is not the same as support — see the records on this page.
Where does this information come from?
Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 11 distinct sources are cited for Atlas Copco. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.
Sources & citations
Record last updated: 2026-09-25
- Atlas Copco Group — Annual Report 2025 (Investor AB shareholding; Epiroc distribution; business areas) atlascopcogroup.com
- Edwards Vacuum — About us (‘Edwards is part of the Atlas Copco Group’) edwardsvacuum.com
- Edwards Vacuum — Israel office, Kiryat Gat edwardsvacuum.com
- Atlas Copco — ‘Atlas Copco in Israel’, the company's own market page atlascopco.com
- Atlas Copco — ‘Your PT contacts in Israel’, authorised distributors atlascopco.com
- Who Profits — Atlas Copco company profile whoprofits.org
- Who Profits — Updates from the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem New Fast Train Line, April 2013 whoprofits.org
- AFSC Investigate — Atlas Copco AB investigate.afsc.org
- Don't Buy Into Occupation coalition — 2021 report (archived copy; Atlas Copco section, footnote 212) web.archive.org
- Sveriges riksdag — written question 2024/25:1292, Håkan Svenneling (V) riksdagen.se
- Palestinagrupperna i Sverige — Svenska banker och företag inblandade i Israels ockupation (12 October 2021) palestinagrupperna.se