Intel to buy Mobileye for $15.3bn

U.S. chipmaker Intel is acquiring Israeli autonomous vehicle tech firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion. The deal that is expected to close in about nine months could thrust the U.S. chipmaker into direct competition with rivals Nvidia Corp and Qualcomm to develop driverless systems for global automakers.

“This acquisition is a great step forward for our shareholders, the automotive industry and consumers,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO, in a statement. “Intel provides critical foundational technologies for autonomous driving including plotting the car’s path and making real-time driving decisions. Mobileye brings the industry’s best automotive-grade computer vision and strong momentum with automakers and suppliers. Together, we can accelerate the future of autonomous driving with improved performance in a cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers.”

While Intel is known for hardware chips and Mobileye for collision detection software, the acquisition signals expanding alliances between automakers and their suppliers as they race to develop self-driving cars. for Intel, Mobileye brings a broad portfolio that includes cameras, sensor chips, in-car networking, roadway mapping, machine learning, cloud software and data fusion and management.

“By pooling together our infrastructure and resources, we can enhance and accelerate our combined know-how in the areas of mapping, virtual driving, simulators, development tool chains, hardware, data centers and high-performance computing platforms. Together, we will provide an attractive value proposition for the automotive industry.”Ziv Aviram, Mobileye co-founder, president and CEO, added.

Intel will integrate its automated driving group with Mobileye's operations, with the combined entity being run by Mobileye chairman Amnon Shashua from Israel.

“Intel estimates the vehicle systems, data and services market opportunity to be up to $70 billion by 2030. The transaction extends Intel’s strategy to invest in data-intensive market opportunities that build on the company’s strengths in computing and connectivity from the cloud, through the network, to the device,” the company added.

Intel has been working with Mobileye since last year. Mobileye and Intel are already collaborating with German automaker BMW on a project to put a fleet of around 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.

At the same time, Mobileye has teamed up with Intel for its fifth-generation of chips that will be used on fully autonomous vehicles that are scheduled for delivery around 2021.