V-DIG Audit: Bentley

Dual-Entity: Bentley Motors Limited & Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Scope note. This audit covers two legally distinct companies sharing the “Bentley” name: Bentley Motors Limited (Crewe, UK; luxury automotive manufacturer; wholly owned by Volkswagen Group) and Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Exton, PA, USA; NASDAQ: BSY; infrastructure engineering software). Where findings apply to only one entity, that entity is named explicitly. Where VW Group-level relationships flow to Bentley Motors as a subsidiary brand, that chain is stated.

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Check Point Software Technologies is the most clearly evidenced Israeli-origin technology relationship for Bentley Systems. A Check Point customer case study confirms that Bentley Systems deployed Check Point products for core network security functions, including next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and secure remote-access infrastructure.¹ The document’s language and product generation references place the relationship as active prior to 2024. This is not a peripheral or incidental dependency: network firewall and IPS constitute foundational enterprise perimeter security, and the case study indicates Bentley Systems consolidated its security stack around Check Point to the exclusion of evaluated alternatives.¹ Check Point Software Technologies is headquartered in Tel Aviv and is among Israel’s largest technology exporters.

Wiz (cloud security posture management): The prior research cycle asserted that Bentley Systems uses Wiz as its CSPM platform. The sources cited in support of this claim — a SentinelOne–Wiz partnership press release² — describe a vendor-to-vendor commercial alliance and contain no reference to Bentley Systems. No independent corroboration of a Bentley Systems–Wiz customer relationship exists in available evidence. No public evidence identified.

SentinelOne (endpoint detection and response): Similarly attributed to Bentley Systems in prior research. The cited source is the same SentinelOne–Wiz vendor partnership announcement² and does not mention Bentley Systems. No public evidence identified.

CyberArk: Referenced in prior research but not substantively evidenced. No public evidence identified.

Siemens AG strategic stake: Siemens AG holds a significant strategic equity position in Bentley Systems, established at or prior to Bentley’s 2020 Nasdaq IPO.³ The precise current percentage requires verification against a current Bentley Systems SEC filing or Siemens investor disclosure, but the Siemens relationship is structurally relevant because Siemens subsequently acquired Inspekto — an AI machine vision company of Israeli founding — creating an indirect channel through which Inspekto’s technology is available to Bentley Systems customers and its own manufacturing ecosystem (see Section 2).

Bentley Motors Limited

Bentley Motors does not independently procure enterprise IT at scale; group-level technology procurement is consolidated at the Volkswagen Group level. Bentley-specific IT vendor relationships are therefore largely mediated through VW Group contracts and frameworks. The key exception is the engagement of MHP Consulting (a wholly owned subsidiary of Porsche AG, itself a VW Group entity) as the primary systems integrator for Bentley Motors’ regulatory cybersecurity programme (see below).

MHP Consulting / UNECE R155 & R156 Compliance Programme: Bentley Motors engaged MHP Consulting to design and implement a Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS) and Software Update Management System (SUMS) in order to achieve compliance with UNECE WP.29 Regulations R155 and R156, which are mandatory for all new type approvals in the European Union and a growing number of markets globally.⁴⁵⁶ MHP deployed a compliance architecture that included the Cymotive-based automotive cybersecurity toolchain (see Section 4). Bentley achieved type approval with zero nonconformities recorded.⁴⁵ This is a significant milestone: R155/R156 compliance is a legal prerequisite for continued vehicle sales in the EU.

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

In-Vehicle Driver Monitoring Systems

Bentley Motors vehicles built on VW Group platforms with Mobileye SuperVision™ integration include a Driver Monitoring System (DMS) using interior-facing cameras and time-of-flight sensors. The DMS tracks driver eye gaze and head pose to enable driver-state-sensitive ADAS intervention (marketed as “Safeguard” in some contexts).⁷⁸ The underlying DMS hardware and software form part of Mobileye’s EyeQ system-on-chip platform. Mobileye is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, and is majority-owned by Intel Corporation following Intel’s 2017 acquisition and partial 2022 IPO. The VW Group’s collaboration with Mobileye at platform level — which flows to Bentley as a VW Group brand — was confirmed by a joint Mobileye–VW Group announcement.⁷ This is an embedded product function, not a customer-facing biometric or retail surveillance deployment.

Important caveat: Confirmation of SuperVision™ deployment specifically in current production Bentley (rather than other VW Group) models has not been sourced to a Bentley-specific product announcement. The flow of VW Group ADAS architecture to individual brands is standard practice, but the specific Bentley model-line deployment should be confirmed against Bentley product specification documentation.

AI-Assisted Manufacturing Quality Control

AI leather hide inspection (Bentley Crewe): Bentley Motors published a press release in April 2025 confirming deployment of an AI computer vision system at its Crewe factory to inspect leather hides for defects including insect bites and surface scarring, with the stated objective of achieving “leather perfection” through automated flaw detection prior to cutting.⁹ The press release confirms the programme’s existence and functional purpose but does not name the technology vendor. Prior research speculatively attributed this to Israeli computer vision heritage via the Konnect VW Group innovation hub; that vendor attribution is unverified and is not adopted here. The manufacturing AI programme is confirmed; the vendor’s national origin is not established from available evidence.⁹

Inspekto / Konnect machine vision: Inspekto is a machine vision company founded in Israel and latterly headquartered in Germany, subsequently acquired by Siemens. The Konnect VW Group Innovation Hub in Tel Aviv, through which VW Group brands access Israeli deep-tech startups, ran a smart-manufacturing challenge in which Inspekto participated.¹⁰¹¹¹² Prior research claimed Inspekto’s autonomous machine vision was deployed specifically at Bentley’s Crewe factory for panoramic roof sealant path inspection. The Konnect–Inspekto engagement is corroborated at the programme level¹⁰¹¹¹²; the specific Bentley Crewe factory deployment detail is sourced only to trade articles that could not be independently verified to page level. A separate source cited in prior research ([S11]) addresses a BMW Inspekto deployment — not Bentley — and does not support the Bentley-specific claim. This Bentley-specific manufacturing deployment should be treated as partially verified pending direct confirmation from Bentley or MHP communications.

Retail, Customer-Facing & Workplace Surveillance

No public evidence identified that Bentley Motors or Bentley Systems uses facial recognition, retail biometric identification, or AI-powered customer monitoring platforms from Israeli-origin vendors (including Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, or Trax) in any dealership, showroom, customer experience, or workplace context.

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

Cloud Delivery Model — Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems delivers its primary SaaS platforms — ProjectWise (engineering content management and common data environment) and iTwin (digital twin infrastructure) — over public cloud infrastructure, predominantly Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).³ Bentley Systems is an infrastructure engineering software provider, not a cloud infrastructure operator, and is not a party to any government cloud procurement contract.

Project Nimbus

Project Nimbus is a multi-year, approximately USD 1.2 billion cloud infrastructure contract awarded by the Israeli government to Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services in 2021. Neither Bentley Motors nor Bentley Systems is a cloud infrastructure provider, and neither is named in Project Nimbus contract documents available in public sources.³

Prior research cited the ICCR 2025 Proxy Resolutions & Voting Guide¹³ as evidence that Bentley Systems faces a shareholder resolution specifically concerning Project Nimbus. This claim is disputed: training knowledge indicates the ICCR 2025 proxy guide addresses Project Nimbus resolutions directed at Alphabet (Google) and Amazon, the two contract holders — not Bentley Systems. The ICCR document is real and publicly available¹³, but its attribution to Bentley Systems in prior research appears to be a misattribution and should be verified against the document directly before any Bentley-specific Nimbus claim is advanced.

Indirect Exposure via SaaS Infrastructure

If Israeli state infrastructure clients — such as Mekorot or NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit — use Bentley Systems’ cloud-delivered SaaS products (ProjectWise, iTwin), their project data would reside on the cloud instances serving that region. Whether those regional instances overlap with Project Nimbus infrastructure is not established from available evidence. This represents an indirect and inferential pathway, not a documented contractual or operational relationship. No public evidence identified of Bentley Systems being named in Nimbus-related procurement, shareholder activism, or regulatory filings.

Data Centre Operations in Israel

No public evidence identified that either Bentley Motors or Bentley Systems operates, leases, or co-locates dedicated data centre or edge infrastructure within Israel.

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

Cymotive Technologies — VW Group Level, Flows to Bentley Motors

The most substantive intelligence-sector-adjacent relationship in this audit operates at the Volkswagen Group level and flows to Bentley Motors as a VW Group brand.

Cymotive Technologies was co-founded in 2016 by VW Group together with three Israeli principals with direct Israeli domestic intelligence backgrounds:

• Yuval Diskin, former Director-General of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), serving 2005–2011¹⁴¹⁵
• Tsafrir Kats, former head of Shin Bet’s technology division¹⁴
• Tamir Bechor, co-founder and CEO, graduate-level computer science background¹⁵

VW Group holds approximately 40% equity in Cymotive.¹⁴ Cymotive specialises in automotive cybersecurity: vehicle security operations, threat intelligence, penetration testing, secure code review, and CSMS/SUMS architecture for OEM compliance programmes. The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv.

Cymotive’s technology was embedded in Bentley Motors’ UNECE R155/R156 compliance implementation, delivered via MHP Consulting as the prime systems integrator.⁴⁵⁶ This means that Cymotive’s automotive cybersecurity platform is now embedded in Bentley’s type-approved vehicle cybersecurity architecture — a regulatory compliance architecture that must be maintained for the lifetime of approved vehicle types. The compliance programme is not optional: it is a legal prerequisite for new EU type approvals.

The Shin Bet alumni founding team is a notable structural feature. Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic security service with responsibilities for counterterrorism, counterespionage, and protective security. The application of founders’ intelligence backgrounds to commercial automotive cybersecurity is a common pattern in Israeli deep-tech, and Cymotive’s stated activities are civilian automotive security. No evidence of Cymotive engaging in offensive intelligence operations for foreign governments has been identified.

Mobileye — Commercial Partnership, VW Group Level

Mobileye (Jerusalem, Israel; Intel subsidiary) has a longstanding commercial partnership with the Volkswagen Group for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), including SuperVision™ full-stack ADAS and the EyeQ system-on-chip platform.⁷⁸ Mobileye is a commercial technology vendor, not a defence or intelligence contractor. However, Mobileye’s dual-use potential (high-resolution mapping, sensor fusion at scale) has been noted in academic literature. No evidence of Mobileye providing defence or intelligence services to any government via VW Group or Bentley has been identified.

Israeli State Infrastructure Clients — Bentley Systems

Mekorot (Israeli National Water Authority): Training knowledge corroborates that Mekorot is a documented user of Bentley Systems water infrastructure software, consistent with Bentley’s published infrastructure client materials and Middle East technology blog content.¹⁶¹⁷ Mekorot is Israel’s national water company, operating as a state-owned enterprise, and functions as the primary water infrastructure manager in both Israel and parts of the occupied West Bank. Human rights organisations including Amnesty International and B’Tselem have documented Mekorot’s role in unequal water distribution between Israeli settlements and Palestinian communities in the West Bank.¹⁸¹⁹ Bentley Systems’ hydraulic modelling tools — primarily OpenFlows WaterGEMS — are standard-of-practice for national water utility planning and network management globally. The software’s use by Mekorot in managing the infrastructure over which these distribution decisions are made is inferential but consistent with Mekorot’s operational profile. No document directly states Bentley software is used to manage West Bank water allocation decisions specifically.

NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit / Tel Aviv Green Line: The Tel Aviv Green Line (Metro Line M1) is a large-scale active infrastructure project in Israel operated under the auspices of NTA.²⁰ Bentley Systems’ ProjectWise is deployed as a Common Data Environment (CDE) for large infrastructure programmes globally, consistent with its standard deployment model.²¹ Prior research asserts a ProjectWise CDE mandate for the Green Line; this is plausible given Bentley’s standard contract patterns with large transit authorities, but requires confirmation from a named project document, NTA procurement record, or Bentley-published case study specifically naming the Green Line.

Israel Railways / iTwin: Prior research claims Bentley provides iTwin digital twin solutions for Israel Railways. The cited source is a general Bentley rail digital twins white paper²¹ that does not name Israel Railways specifically. This claim is unverified on the basis of available evidence.

Direct Military & Intelligence Contracts

No public evidence identified of Bentley Motors or Bentley Systems holding direct contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Mossad, Shin Bet, or Israeli military industrial primes. Neither entity is known to produce or license weapons systems, offensive cyber capabilities, or surveillance platforms sold to security or intelligence agencies.

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

AI in Bentley Systems Products

Bentley Systems integrates AI and machine learning across its infrastructure engineering platform. Key AI-enabled product capabilities include:

• iTwin digital twin platform: Uses AI/ML for predictive asset maintenance, anomaly detection in infrastructure sensor data, and generative design workflows. Deployed globally to civil infrastructure operators including water utilities, railways, and road agencies.²¹ Israeli state clients using these products (Mekorot, NTA as inferred above) would access AI-enabled features as part of standard SaaS subscriptions. This constitutes general-purpose software provision, not purpose-built AI for state or security functions.
• ProjectWise: Uses AI for automated document classification, clash detection, and engineering workflow orchestration in CDEs for major infrastructure projects.²¹

AI in Bentley Motors Manufacturing

• AI leather hide inspection (Crewe, 2025): Confirmed by Bentley Motors press release, April 2025.⁹ Uses computer vision and machine learning to detect hide defects (insect bites, surface scars, growth marks) to optimise material yield and quality consistency. Vendor not publicly named.
• The Konnect VW Group hub’s mandate explicitly includes AI-powered manufacturing technologies¹⁰¹¹, and Inspekto’s autonomous machine vision (Israeli-founded, Siemens-acquired) was demonstrated within the Konnect programme¹⁰¹¹¹². Whether this relates to Bentley’s specific AI leather inspection deployment cannot be established from available evidence.

Autonomous Vehicles & Algorithmic Decision-Making

• Mobileye SuperVision™, deployed via VW Group platform-level agreements⁷⁸, provides full-stack ADAS including Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) algorithmic decision-making for highway and urban driving automation. This is a commercially available civilian system. No autonomous weapons, targeting, or lethal decision-making functions are involved.
• Bentley Motors’ Beyond100 strategy includes electrification and autonomous driving capability development.²² No Israeli-specific AI partnerships are identified in published Beyond100 materials beyond the VW Group-level Mobileye relationship.

AI Provision to State or Security Bodies

No public evidence identified of either entity providing purpose-built AI or algorithmic decision systems to Israeli security, military, or intelligence institutions. General-purpose infrastructure software used by Israeli state-owned utility or transit companies is not classified here as AI provision to security bodies.

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

VW Group Konnect Innovation Hub (Tel Aviv)

The Konnect VW Group Innovation Hub was established in Tel Aviv in 2018 as a corporate venture and innovation scouting function for the VW Group.¹⁰ It operates as a small-format hub focused on proof-of-concept engagements with Israeli deep-tech startups across the following verticals: automotive cybersecurity, autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), and connected vehicles.¹⁰¹¹

Konnect is a VW Group entity, not a Bentley Motors entity. However, as a wholly owned VW Group brand, Bentley Motors has access to — and is a beneficiary of — technologies validated and piloted through Konnect. Documented Konnect engagements with Israeli startups relevant to Bentley include:

• Cymotive Technologies: Automotive cybersecurity platform; co-founded with VW Group equity. Now embedded in Bentley’s UNECE compliance architecture (see Section 4).⁴¹⁴¹⁵
• ADASky (Correlated Magnetics / thermal FIR sensing): ADASky won the Konnect MaaS Startup Challenge for its thermal imaging sensor technology for autonomous vehicles.¹² ADASky is an Israeli startup; its technology was validated through Konnect. No evidence of ADASky sensors being deployed in current production Bentley vehicles.
• Inspekto: Participated in Konnect smart-manufacturing programme; Israeli-founded autonomous machine vision, later acquired by Siemens.¹⁰¹¹ Specific deployment in Bentley Crewe factory is partially verified (see Section 2).

Bentley Systems — Acquisitions

Cesium (acquired by Bentley Systems)²³²⁴: Cesium is a US-founded company (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) specialising in 3D geospatial tiling and the CesiumJS open-source platform for geospatial visualisation. Cesium is not an Israeli-origin company. Its acquisition brings Bentley Systems 3D geospatial and tiling capabilities that strengthen the iTwin platform for infrastructure, urban digital twin, and defence-adjacent geospatial use cases.

Talon Aerolytics (acquired by Bentley Systems, together with Pointivo Technology)¹⁵²⁵²⁶: Talon Aerolytics is a US-founded company (West Point, Georgia) specialising in drone-based infrastructure inspection analytics.²⁷²⁸ Pointivo is a US-based AI platform for structure analytics from aerial imagery. Neither is Israeli-origin. Prior research characterised these acquisitions under an Israeli technology framing; that characterisation is not supported by available evidence.

Bentley Systems — R&D Footprint in Israel

No public evidence identified of Bentley Systems operating a dedicated R&D centre, engineering office, or satellite development team in Israel. No patent co-development agreements with Israeli academic or research institutions (Technion, Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute) have been identified.

Bentley Motors — R&D Footprint in Israel

No public evidence identified of Bentley Motors operating any R&D, engineering, or commercial function in Israel. Bentley’s primary engineering and manufacturing operations remain concentrated at Crewe (UK), with design input from the VW Group’s Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt network.

Ownership and Financial Relationships — Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) is a publicly traded company. Significant institutional and strategic shareholders include the founding Bentley family and Siemens AG, which holds a strategic equity stake dating from the IPO period.³ Siemens’ ownership of Inspekto (Israeli-founded) creates an indirect structural link between Bentley Systems’ largest non-family shareholder and Israeli-origin machine vision technology, though no evidence of a resulting product or procurement relationship has been identified.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

NGO and Academic Reports

Mekorot / water infrastructure: Amnesty International, B’Tselem, and other human rights organisations have published extensively documenting Mekorot’s role as the operator of water infrastructure that serves Israeli settlements in the West Bank while Palestinian communities in the same areas face documented supply restrictions.¹⁸¹⁹ The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre aggregates this coverage and has tracked corporate relationships with Mekorot.¹⁸ These reports address Mekorot’s practices and operational decisions; they do not specifically identify Bentley Systems software as an enabling technology. The connection between Bentley’s hydraulic management tools and Mekorot’s West Bank water operations is inferential, grounded in Mekorot’s documented use of Bentley water software¹⁶¹⁷ and Mekorot’s documented operational scope in the West Bank.¹⁸¹⁹

ICCR Proxy Resolutions 2025: The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility published its 2025 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide in March 2025.¹³ Prior research asserted this document contains a shareholder resolution specifically directed at Bentley Systems concerning Project Nimbus and technology provision to the IDF. As noted in the Cloud Infrastructure section above, this attribution is disputed on the basis of available evidence: the ICCR 2025 proxy guide is understood to address Nimbus resolutions at Alphabet and Amazon — the actual Nimbus contract holders. The document is publicly available and should be reviewed directly before any Bentley-specific shareholder resolution claim is adopted.¹³

Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Campaigns

No public evidence identified of organised BDS campaigns specifically targeting Bentley Motors or Bentley Systems for their technology relationships with Israeli state entities. Neither entity appears on BDS Movement published target lists, Who Profits (Israeli human rights research centre) database entries, or AFSC Investigate database profiles available in training data.

Regulatory and Legal Actions

No public evidence identified of export control investigations, sanctions inquiries, regulatory enforcement actions, or litigation involving Bentley Motors’ or Bentley Systems’ technology provision to Israeli state entities or customers. Neither entity has appeared in UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), or EU dual-use export control proceedings in connection with Israel-related technology transfers based on available evidence.

Shareholder & Investor Pressure

Outside the disputed ICCR attribution discussed above, No public evidence identified of formal shareholder resolutions, investor coalition letters, or ESG engagement campaigns directed at either Bentley entity specifically concerning their Israeli technology relationships.

End Notes