Intel plans to take the Mobileye self-driving car unit public

December 6 (Reuters) – Intel Corp (INTC.O) said on Monday that it plans to take the Mobileye self-driving car unit public in the US by mid-2022, a deal that could value the Israeli unit at more than $ 50 billion, a person familiar with the matter to Reuters.

The chip giant Intel, the largest employer in Israel̵[ads1]7;s high-tech industry with nearly 14,000 workers, expects to retain Mobileye’s management team and retain majority ownership of the unit following the IPO of recently issued Mobileye shares.

Intel has no intention of selling or spinning the majority stake in Mobileye, the company said in a statement, adding that it will continue to provide technical resources to the automaker.

The partnership continues to provide strong revenue along with free cash flow to Mobileye that allows funding for the development of autonomous vehicles, Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua said in a release.

“Amnon and I decided that an IPO would provide the best opportunity to build on Mobileye’s track record of innovation and unlock shareholder value,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in the statement.

Gelsinger has been under pressure from activist investors such as Third Point LLC to consider spinning off its expensive chip production, although the company has looked to expand its advanced chip production capacity in the US and Europe amid a global shortage of semiconductors. read more

Intel acquired Mobileye for $ 15.3 billion in 2017, putting it in direct competition with rivals Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) to develop driverless systems for global automakers.

Automakers, including General Motors (GM.N), Ford (UN) and Toyota (7203.T), are trying to switch from petrol-powered series to all electric power and have invested significantly in models with features such as driver assistance technology and self-driving system.

Mobileye, founded in 1999, has taken a different strategy than many of its self-driving car competitors, with a current camera-based system that helps cars with adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance. read more

The company is gradually planning to build its own “lidar” sensor to help its cars map a three-dimensional view of the road and is using lidar devices from Luminar Technologies (LAZR.O) on its first robot axis in the meantime.

Despite being owned by Intel, Mobileye has never used Intel’s factories to make its chips, instead relying on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330.TW) for all its “EyeQ” chips to date.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Intel’s intention to list the shares.

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Akriti Sharma, Jahnavi Nidumolu and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Further reporting by Sneha Bhowmik; Editing Devika Syamnath, Rashmi Aich, Sonya Hepinstall and Sriraj Kalluvila

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