Intel Announces IPO For Its Self-Driving Car Subsidiary Mobileye, Eyes $50bn Valuation For Israeli Firm It Purchased In 2017 For $15.3bn

Intel has announced on Monday (Dec 6) that its plan to take Mobileye, the chip behemoth's advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle subsidiary, public in the United States in mid-2022 via an initial public offering (IPO).

Intel is reportedly valuing Mobileye at more than $50 billion.

In 2017, Intel acquired Mobileye, which was an Israeli autonomous vehicle technology firm, for $15.3 billion. The acquisition helped Intel enter in to a direct competition with rivals Nvidia and Qualcomm to develop driverless systems for global automakers.

Intel said that the proposed move with unlock the value of Mobileye for Intel shareholders by creating a separate publicly traded company and will build on Mobileye’s successful track record and serve its expanded market.

“Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye has been a great success. Mobileye has achieved record revenue year-over-year with 2021 gains expected to be more than 40 percent higher than 2020, highlighting the powerful benefits to both companies of our ongoing partnership,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said.

Intel said that it continued to be the majority shareholder in Mobileye with no intent to spin off or divest at all.

A final decision on the IPO still needs to be reached, and is subject to market conditions, but as the majority stakeholder, Intel’s plan is to continue to fully consolidate Mobileye.

Despite being owned by Intel, Mobileye does not use Intel’s fab factories to make its chips. The Israel-based firm outsources its EyeQ system-on-chip (SoC) production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

In 2021, Mobileye shipped its 100 millionth EyeQ system-on-chip (SoC), scaled autonomous vehicle (AV) test programs across multiple cities around the world.

The company unveiled its fully autonomous robo-taxis that is set to compete with Waymo and Cruise.

SInce its inception, Mobileye took a different strategy from many of its self-driving car competitors, with a current camera-based system that helps cars with adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance. The company believes that cameras are critical to allow an automated automobile system to reach human-level perception/actuation.

Following the announcement, Intel share prices surged as much as 8.5% to $55.30 in late trading.

Ever since he took, Intel CEO Gelsinger has been attempting to revive the fortunes of the world’s largest chipmaker including bringing back focus on its own famed manufacturing prowess. The chip giant's stock however has been battered in the last couple of years as it loses grounds to other semiconductor players.