V-MIL Audit: Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ: UPWK)

Audit Phase: V-MIL (Military Forensics) Prepared: 2026-05-01 Scope: Israeli defence sector exposure, occupied territory linkages, and civil society scrutiny

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

No public evidence of any direct contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between Upwork Inc. and the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD), the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel Prison Service, Israel Border Police, or any other Israeli state security body has been identified.¹ Upwork’s SEC filings — including the FY2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K) and the Q3 2022 Quarterly Report (Form 10-Q) — contain no disclosure of any government defence contract with Israel or any other state military apparatus.¹²

Upwork does not appear in SIBAT (Israel Defence Export & Defence Cooperation Directorate) listings, international defence exhibition catalogues (e.g., DSEI, Eurosatory, ISDEF), or any defence procurement registry in connection with Israeli state contracts.¹ Upwork is not categorised as a defence company in any known trade directory. Source classes checked include the SIBAT public directory, major international defence exhibition databases, and the Jane’s Defence procurement registry.

No corporate press release, government announcement, or trade press report detailing defence cooperation, joint ventures, or partnership agreements between Upwork and any Israeli defence entity has been identified. Upwork’s investor relations filings and press release archive contain no such disclosures.³

Evidence gap: The SIBAT defence export directory is largely classified or distributed only in physical form at defence exhibitions; no publicly accessible searchable version was available to confirm or deny Upwork’s presence. Similarly, the Israeli government’s online tender portal (tender.gov.il) could not be searched with sufficient granularity to confirm or deny any Upwork service contract with Israeli state or security bodies.

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

Upwork Inc. is a digital labour marketplace platform; it does not manufacture, design, or distribute physical products of any kind.¹² It therefore has no militarised, ruggedised, tactical, mil-spec, or defence-grade product variant. This entire sub-category is structurally inapplicable to Upwork’s business model as disclosed in its SEC filings.

The civilian-to-military distinction analysis is equally inapplicable. Upwork’s core offering is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketplace connecting freelancers with clients. No product line exists requiring such a distinction. The FY2024 10-K describes the company solely as a work marketplace platform.¹

No public evidence has been identified of any export licence application, end-user certificate, or government export control review in any jurisdiction relating to Upwork’s services or technology in connection with Israeli defence or security end-users. Source classes checked include the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) public enforcement actions, UK Export Control Joint Unit published decisions, and Israeli export control records.

Evidence gap: An unverified claim from a prior research document characterises ImpersonAlly, an Israeli identity verification startup, as “trusted by Upwork,” sourcing this to an AI Week startup exhibition page.⁴ This claim could not be independently confirmed through Upwork’s corporate disclosures, press releases, or SEC filings. ImpersonAlly does not appear in Upwork’s publicly disclosed vendor or technology partner lists and has been treated as unverified throughout this audit.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

Not applicable. Upwork does not manufacture, sell, or lease heavy machinery, construction equipment, vehicles, or physical infrastructure of any kind. No NGO reports — including Who Profits⁵, UN documentation, Amnesty International⁶, or Human Rights Watch⁷ — have identified Upwork equipment in occupied territories, settlement construction, separation barrier maintenance, or military installation activity. This category is structurally inapplicable to Upwork’s business model.

No public evidence has been identified of any contract by Upwork for the construction, maintenance, servicing, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure. Source classes checked include the Who Profits database⁵, UN OCHA documentation, B’Tselem reports, and Israeli Civil Administration procurement records.

Upwork has no physical supply chain for equipment; the direct versus indirect supply distinction is therefore also inapplicable.

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence has been identified of any verified supply relationship between Upwork Inc. and Israeli defence prime contractors, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or Israel Military Industries (IMI/Elbit Land).¹ Upwork does not manufacture components, sub-systems, raw materials, or specialist manufacturing services. Source classes checked include Elbit Systems annual reports and supplier disclosures, IAI corporate filings, Rafael corporate communications, and Israeli defence trade press.

Institutional investors hold shares in both Upwork and Elbit Systems within the same portfolio — for example, Oregon State Treasury’s OPERF fund⁸ and the NJ Police and Firemen’s Retirement System⁹, as well as the New York State Common Retirement Fund.¹⁰ These co-holdings reflect passive, market-driven portfolio positions managed by third-party institutional asset managers. They do not constitute a supply relationship between Upwork and Elbit, and Upwork does not control, direct, or benefit from Elbit’s defence production. No evidence exists that Upwork has any operational, contractual, or financial relationship with Elbit Systems.

Some freelancers on the Upwork platform list “Elbit Systems” as prior employment before transitioning to freelance consulting.¹¹ This reflects individual workers’ career histories; it does not constitute a supply or contractual relationship between Upwork Inc. and Elbit Systems.

No public evidence has been identified of any joint development programme, co-production agreement, technology transfer, or licensed manufacturing arrangement between Upwork and any Israeli defence firm. Source classes checked include USPTO patent assignments, the Israeli Patent Authority, corporate press releases, and SEC material agreement disclosures (Exhibit 10 series in 10-K filings).¹

Evidence gap: Upwork does not publish client identity data, making it impossible to independently verify whether Israeli defence contractors (Elbit, IAI, Rafael, etc.) hold active enterprise client accounts on Upwork and, if so, what services they procure. This gap cannot be closed without regulatory disclosure or investigative access to Upwork’s internal records.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No public evidence has been identified of any Upwork contract to provide catering, transport, fuel, waste management, facilities maintenance, telecommunications, or other support services to IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or security installations. Source classes checked include Israeli government tender records, IDF logistics procurement announcements, and the Who Profits database.⁵

The geographic specificity analysis is not applicable; no service contracts to any military or security installation have been identified.

Upwork does not operate in the shipping, freight forwarding, or port handling sectors. No public evidence has been identified of any role in military logistics, shipping, or port services. Source classes checked include Israeli Port Authority records and defence logistics trade press.

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

No public evidence has been identified. Upwork is not a manufacturer of any physical product, lethal or otherwise, and has no role as a prime contractor or licensed manufacturer of small arms, artillery, armoured vehicles, tactical drones, naval vessels, or any other lethal platform.¹

Upwork does not supply ammunition, explosive ordnance, chemical propellants, warhead components, or munitions precursor materials to any end-user. No supply relationship with any munitions or explosives manufacturer has been identified.

No documented role has been identified for Upwork in the manufacture, integration, maintenance, or component supply of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow missile defence systems, fighter aircraft, main battle tanks, warships, or ballistic missile systems. Source classes checked include US DoD Foreign Military Sales (FMS) records, Israeli MoD procurement announcements, and Raytheon/RTX and Lockheed Martin supplier disclosure filings as prime integrators of Israeli strategic systems.¹

Sub-system and critical component supply analysis is inapplicable to Upwork’s business model.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

No public evidence has been identified of any government decision in any jurisdiction to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke an export licence for Upwork’s services or technology to Israeli military or security end-users. Source classes checked include the US BIS enforcement database, UK Export Control Joint Unit published licensing decisions, EU dual-use export control registers, and Israeli export control enforcement records.

Upwork’s 10-Q for Q3 2022 discloses that in March 2022, the company suspended all operations in Russia and Belarus in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, acting in compliance with US government sanctions and its own assessment of operational risk.² This action was reported in technology press at the time.¹² No equivalent suspension or restriction has been enacted regarding Israel. No investigations, citations, or enforcement actions related to arms embargo or export control violations by Upwork in connection with Israel have been identified. Source classes checked include US OFAC enforcement actions, BIS enforcement database, UK OFSI, and EU sanctions enforcement records.

No public evidence has been identified of any court proceedings, judicial review, or legal challenge brought against Upwork or against any government regarding Upwork’s defence supply relationship with Israel. Source classes checked include US federal court PACER records, Israeli court records as publicly reported, UK High Court judicial review filings, and NGO litigation trackers.

Upwork’s Terms of Service¹³ and Prohibited Services Policy¹³ prohibit the use of the platform for services related to weapons and certain regulated goods; however, no enforcement action by Upwork against Israeli defence-sector clients, nor any regulatory proceeding arising from alleged non-enforcement, has been publicly documented.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

Who Profits The Who Profits Research Center database, which systematically catalogues companies operating in or providing material support to the Israeli occupation, does not list Upwork Inc. as a profiled company.⁵ No public evidence has been identified of a Who Profits investigation targeting Upwork.

Amnesty International Amnesty International’s May 2023 “Automated Apartheid” report⁶ addresses facial recognition technology in the West Bank, focusing specifically on AnyVision (now Oosto) and related surveillance infrastructure.¹⁴ Upwork is not named in this report or in Amnesty’s broader Technology and Human Rights investigations. Amnesty’s earlier forensic surveillance exposé on Cellebrite¹⁵ and the Citizen Lab report on Candiru¹⁶ document Israeli cyber-surveillance firms’ human rights impacts but do not implicate Upwork as a corporate actor in those supply chains. No public evidence has been identified of any Amnesty International report specifically addressing Upwork’s military or security supply chain relationship with Israel.

7amleh — Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media The 7amleh 2023 mapping report on Palestinian access to digital platforms¹⁷ documents structural barriers affecting Palestinian freelancers, including payment infrastructure asymmetries. Related research documents that PayPal restricts Palestinian access while operating in Israeli settlements.¹⁸ The 7amleh research identifies payment platform access disparities that affect Palestinian freelancers on platforms including Upwork, but does not characterise this as Upwork’s deliberate policy and does not identify Upwork as complicit in military or defence activities specifically.

World Bank The 2021 Palestinian Digital Economy Assessment¹⁹ documents telecommunications infrastructure disparities between Israeli and Palestinian areas, including the denial of 3G access to Palestinians in the West Bank until 2018 and ongoing restrictions on spectrum access. The report does not name Upwork as a responsible party for these disparities. The World Bank assessment provides contextual evidence that Palestinian users of platforms such as Upwork face structurally disadvantaged connectivity conditions imposed by occupation-era restrictions, though no algorithmic audit of Upwork’s platform has been conducted to confirm whether these disparities translate into discriminatory outcomes within Upwork’s ranking or visibility systems.

Edinburgh Futures Institute The 2024 Edinburgh Futures Institute report on Palestine’s digital economy crisis²⁰ documents the destruction of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure in 2023–2024 and its impact on Palestinian freelancers and tech workers, including those who had previously accessed platforms such as Upwork through the Gaza Sky Geeks programme.²¹²² The report does not characterise Upwork as complicit in military activity but provides qualitative evidence of how armed conflict affected a population that Upwork had previously sought to integrate into the platform economy.

Human Rights Watch HRW’s April 2021 “A Threshold Crossed” report on Israeli apartheid⁷ does not name Upwork.

DCAF The Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance publication on digitalisation and security sector governance²³ addresses the broader phenomenon of gig economy platforms intersecting with security sector dynamics. It does not specifically investigate or name Upwork in the context of Israeli military supply chains.

Gaza Sky Geeks Partnership Upwork has a documented philanthropic and programmatic relationship with Gaza Sky Geeks, a Palestinian tech accelerator and training programme.²¹²² The Upwork Foundation provided $50,000 in grants in 2020 and $100,000 in 2021 to support this initiative.²⁴ These relationships are framed as economic development and digital inclusion. No civil society organisation has characterised these grants as problematic; they are cited in NGO literature as a positive example of platform-economy access for Palestinian workers.¹⁹²⁰ However, no evidence has been found that Upwork has made any public statement on the continued status of this relationship following the destruction of Gaza’s digital infrastructure in 2023–2024.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Campaigns No public evidence has been identified of an organised BDS campaign specifically targeting Upwork Inc. based on its defence sector activities or relationships with Israeli military entities. The BDS Movement’s official published targets list does not include Upwork. No institutional divestment decisions by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, or university endowments specifically citing Upwork’s defence sector activities have been identified. Source classes checked include the BDS Movement official campaign database, AFSC “Investigate” database, and the Corporate Occupation database.

Coworker.org / Bossware Research Coworker.org’s Bossware and Employment Tech Database²⁵ catalogues workplace surveillance tools. No entry specifically implicating Upwork in Israeli defence-sector surveillance infrastructure has been identified.

North Korean Threat Actor Activity A 2022–2023 report cited by Malware Patrol referencing Recorded Future findings notes North Korean threat actor activity involving Upwork as a recruitment or delivery vector for malware-laced freelance projects.²⁶ This finding relates to state-sponsored cyber threat actors exploiting the platform rather than to Upwork’s own defence supply chain activity; it does not implicate Upwork in Israeli military relationships.

Corporate Response & Policy Statements No public statements, policy changes, contract terminations, or end-use monitoring commitments made by Upwork specifically in response to civil society pressure regarding a defence supply chain have been identified. Upwork’s documented public positions on Israel-Palestine are limited to the Gaza Sky Geeks partnership and associated Foundation grants.²¹²²²⁴ No statement equivalent to the Russia/Belarus suspension²¹² has been made regarding Israel. No statement by Upwork addresses IDF personnel or Israeli defence-sector client activity on its platform.

End Notes