Mobileye acquires humanoid robot startup Mentee Robotics for $900M

Mobileye made its name, and money, by supplying automakers with millions of computer vision chips designed to support automotive safety features and advanced driver assistance systems. The Intel subsidiary and publicly traded company later expanded to tackle autonomous driving through its chips and software.

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

The Israeli company announced Tuesday during CES in Las Vegas it has reached a deal to acquire Mentee Robotics — a startup co-founded by Shashua in 2022 — for $900 million. Under the agreement, Mobileye will buy Mentee Robotics for about $612 million in cash and up to 26.2 million shares of common stock. Shashua, who is the chairman, co-founder and a significant shareholder of Mentee, recused himself from the Mobileye board’s consideration and approval, according to the company.

The transaction, which was approved by the Mobileye board and Intel, its largest shareholder, is expected to close in the first quarter. The transaction is expected to modestly increase Mobileye’s operating expenses in 2026 by a low-single-digit percentage.

“Today marks a new chapter for robotics and automotive AI, and the beginning of Mobileye 3.0,” Shashua said Tuesday. “By combining Mentee’s breakthroughs in humanoid robotics with Mobileye’s expertise in automotive autonomy, and its proven ability to productize advanced AI, we have a unique opportunity to lead the evolution of physical AI across robotics and autonomous vehicles on a global scale.”

Mentee Robotics, which is developing humanoid robots, will continue as an independent unit within Mobileye. Of course, with Shashua as brains and shareholder between the two companies, there will surely be plenty of overlap.

The benefits for Mobileye aren’t entirely obvious except that every one seems to be jumping into the humanoid robot game these days. Officially, Mobileye said the acquisition “broadens the scope of the business with a decisive step toward Physical Artificial Intelligence in general.” Specifically, systems that are designed to understand context and intent as well as act natural with humans and the physical world.

In other words, Mobileye, and Shashua, seem to want to move beyond the technology used to allow vehicles to navigate the world and apply it to humanoid robots as well. The company suggests in its announcement it has the funds to get it there, noting that its current automotive revenue pipeline — driven by its advanced vehicle autonomy and core advanced driver assistance tech — is $24.5 billion over the next eight years. The company said that pipeline figure is up more than 40% compared to January 2023.

Of course, the development of humanoid robots that can eventually go into production will be a costly enterprise. Mentee stands to gain considerably as it can tap into Mobileye’s resources, which include advanced AI training infrastructure — aka compute.

The acquisition news comes a day after Mobileye announced another customer win for its next-generation chip built for hands-off advanced driver assistance systems. The company announced Monday that a “top 10 automaker” struck a deal to buy 9 million of its EyeQ6H-based Surround ADAS systems. Volkswagen Group announced in March it would also use the chip. Mobileye now estimates future delivery of more than 19 million EyeQ6H-based Surround systems.