Mobileye acquires humanoid robot startup Mentee Robotics for $900M

Mobileye made its name, and money, by supplying automakers with millions of machine imaginativeness chips designed to enactment automotive information features and precocious operator assistance systems. The Intel subsidiary and publically traded institution aboriginal expanded to tackle autonomous driving done its chips and software.

Now, co-founder and president Amnon Shashua is taking the institution into what helium calls Mobileye 3.0. And that means robotics and a hefty acquisition.

The Israeli institution announced Tuesday during CES successful Las Vegas it has reached a woody to get Mentee Robotics — a startup co-founded by Shashua successful 2022 — for $900 million. Under the agreement, Mobileye volition bargain Mentee Robotics for astir $612 cardinal successful currency and up to 26.2 cardinal shares of communal stock. Shashua, who is the chairman, co-founder and a important shareholder of Mentee, recused himself from the Mobileye board’s information and approval, according to the company.

The transaction, which was approved by the Mobileye committee and Intel, its largest shareholder, is expected to adjacent successful the archetypal quarter. The transaction is expected to modestly summation Mobileye’s operating expenses successful 2026 by a low-single-digit percentage.

“Today marks a caller section for robotics and automotive AI, and the opening of Mobileye 3.0,” Shashua said Tuesday. “By combining Mentee’s breakthroughs successful humanoid robotics with Mobileye’s expertise successful automotive autonomy, and its proven quality to productize precocious AI, we person a unsocial accidental to pb the improvement of carnal AI crossed robotics and autonomous vehicles connected a planetary scale.”

Mentee Robotics, which is processing humanoid robots, volition proceed arsenic an autarkic portion wrong Mobileye. Of course, with Shashua arsenic brains and shareholder betwixt the 2 companies, determination volition surely beryllium plentifulness of overlap.

The benefits for Mobileye aren’t wholly evident but that each 1 seems to beryllium jumping into the humanoid robot crippled these days. Officially, Mobileye said the acquisition “broadens the scope of the concern with a decisive measurement toward Physical Artificial Intelligence successful general.” Specifically, systems that are designed to recognize discourse and intent arsenic good arsenic enactment earthy with humans and the carnal world.

In different words, Mobileye, and Shashua, look to privation to determination beyond the exertion utilized to let vehicles to navigate the satellite and use it to humanoid robots arsenic well. The institution suggests successful its announcement it has the funds to get it there, noting that its existent automotive gross pipeline — driven by its precocious conveyance autonomy and halfway precocious operator assistance tech — is $24.5 cardinal implicit the adjacent 8 years. The institution said that pipeline fig is up much than 40% compared to January 2023.

Of course, the improvement of humanoid robots that tin yet spell into accumulation volition beryllium a costly enterprise. Mentee stands to summation considerably arsenic it tin pat into Mobileye’s resources, which see precocious AI grooming infrastructure — aka compute.

The acquisition quality comes a time aft Mobileye announced different lawsuit triumph for its next-generation spot built for hands-off precocious operator assistance systems. The institution announced Monday that a “top 10 automaker” struck a woody to bargain 9 cardinal of its EyeQ6H-based Surround ADAS systems. Volkswagen Group announced successful March it would besides usage the chip. Mobileye present estimates aboriginal transportation of much than 19 cardinal EyeQ6H-based Surround systems.