Intel wants to bring Mobileye to the stock exchange

Intel Corp (INTC.O) said Monday that it plans to publicize the self-driving car unit Mobileye in the United States in mid-2022, a deal that could value the Israeli unit at more than $ 50 billion, one said person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The chip giant Intel, the largest employer in the Israeli high-tech industry with almost 14,000 employees, plans to take over the management team of Mobileye and, after the IPO of the newly issued Mobileye shares, hold the majority in the company.

Intel has no plans to sell or spin off its controlling stake in Mobileye, the company said in a statement, adding that it will continue to provide technical resources to the automaker.

The partnership will continue to generate high revenue and free cash flow for Mobileye, which will enable it to finance the development of autonomous vehicles, said Amnon Shashua, Mobileye's chief executive officer, in a statement.

"Amnon and I have come to believe that going public is the best opportunity to build on Mobileye's innovation capabilities and create value for shareholders," said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in the statement.

Gelsinger was pressured by activist investors such as Third Point LLC to consider outsourcing costly chip manufacturing, despite the company's willingness to expand its advanced chip manufacturing capabilities in the United States and Europe in the face of the global semiconductor shortage.

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

Automobile manufacturers, including General Motors (GM.N), Ford (F.N) and Toyota (7203.T), are moving from gasoline-powered vehicles to all-electric vehicles and have invested heavily in models with driver assistance systems and self-driving systems.

Founded in 1999, Mobileye has a different strategy than many of its rivals in the self-driving car space. It has a camera-based system that supports cars with adaptive cruise control and a lane change aid.

The company plans to develop its own "lidar" sensor to help its cars create a three-dimensional view of the road, and is meanwhile using lidar units from Luminar Technologies (LAZR.O) in its first robotic axis.

Although Mobileye is owned by Intel, the company has never used Intel's factories to manufacture its chips, but has had all of its "EyeQ" chips manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW).