US computer giant Intel has this week agreed to buy Jerusalem-based autonomous driving company Mobileye for £12 billion ($15.3 billion), the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli high-tech company.
Mobileye is one of the world leaders in advanced autonomous vehicle systems, accounting for 70% of the global market for advanced driver-assistance and anti-collision systems.
The company is paving the way for the future of driverless cars – last year it partnered with Intel and BMW on a project forecasting that 40 cars will be on the roads for testing by the end of 2017. Intel and Mobileye also partnered with the British manufacturing company Delphi Automotive in 2016.
Mobileye currently supplies cameras, chips and software for driver- assist systems – the building blocks for self-driving cars – to more than two dozen manufacturers.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich praised the innovative Israeli company, stating: “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 cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers”.
Shares in Mobileye have increased by over 20% in the US in pre-market trading, with the market capital for the company currently standing at £8.6 billion ($10.6 billion).
Professor Amnon Shashua, the co-founder and chairman of Mobileye, said: “Together with BMW Group and Intel, Mobileye is laying the groundwork for the technology of future mobility that enables fully autonomous driving to become a reality within the next few years”.
Mobileye was founded in 1999 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, competing with Google, Apple and Tesla on automatic technology. Intel currently has 10,000 employees in Israel.
