Intel to list shares in self-driving car unit Mobileye – source

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(Reuters) – Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) is planning to publicly list shares in its self-driving-car unit Mobileye (F:0ME), which could value the Israeli unit at more than $50 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Intel, the largest employer of Israel’s high tech industry with nearly 14,000 workers, bought autonomous vehicle technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017.

It is not clear whether Intel will retain a stake in the firm, or how large a stake it will retain. The Wall Street Journal first reported https://www.wsj.com/articles/intel-to-list-shares-in-mobileye-unit-11638835561 Intel’s intent to list the shares.

The Mobileye purchase put Intel into direct competition with rivals Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) to develop driverless systems for global automakers.

Mobileye, founded in 1999, has taken 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 plans to eventually build its own “lidar” sensor to help its cars map out a three-dimensional view of the road and is using lidar units from Luminar Technologies on its initial robotaxis 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 for all of its “EyeQ” chips to date.