Intel Spends $15 Billion on Self-Driving Car Firm Mobileye

One of the burgeoning tech markets on the verge of widespread adoption is automated cars. Within the next decade, self-driving cars are likely to become an every-day staple and companies are lining up to push their solutions. Mobileye, an Israeli firm, has been one of the major players in pushing the technology forward and they’ve caught the eye of Intel. In a massive deal worth over 15 billion dollars, the chip giant is set to acquire the computer vision systems company.

Intel has long been working on the self-driving car problem as well, and the acquisition makes sense from that standpoint. The two companies were also already in a partnership along with BMW to bring self-driving cars to market by 2021. The goal is to merge Intel’s smaller Automated Driving Group operations into Mobileye in Israeli. This will expand Intel’s operations in that company along with their x86 CPU design unit there. Mobileye will also get better access to Intel’s Knights Crest, and Lake Crest compute/AI learning accelerators as well.

Intel provides critical foundational technologies for autonomous driving, including plotting the car’s path and making real-time driving decisions. 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 a cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers.

The big question, of course, is how well the acquisition is going to work out. Intel has had a spotty record when it comes to buying up other firms and has taken several big write-downs before due to inflated purchase price. Given the growth in this market, it will be interesting to see which firm will dominate in this industry. It does make sense for them to diversify from their x86 CPU business and into other markets as well.