Intel Acquires Self-Driving Tech Firm Mobileye For $15 Billion

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Intel is making a huge investment in autonomous driving.

The chip giant on Monday announced plans to acquire Jerusalem-based self-driving technology firm Mobileye for $15 billion. The transaction is expected to close within the next nine months.

Mobileye makes computer vision, machine learning, data analysts, and mapping technology for advanced driver assisted systems and autonomous driving. Intel said the acquisition will position it as a "leading technology partner for the fast-growing market for highly and fully autonomous vehicles." With Mobileye under its wing, Intel said it will be able to "accelerate innovation for the automotive industry."

Intel sees huge moneymaking opportunities here. The company estimates the vehicle systems, data, and services market to reach $70 billion by 2030.

Following the acquisition, Mobileye will combine with Intel's existing automated driving group. The team will be headquartered in Israel and led by Mobileye's Co-Founder, Chairman, and CTO Amnon Shashu.

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"This acquisition is a great step forward for our shareholders, the automotive industry and consumers," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement (PDF). "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."

Intel said fully autonomous vehicles are increasingly becoming "data centers on wheels," and estimated they will generate 4TB of data per day by 2020. The company said that the complexity and computing power of automated vehicles created big opportunities for its high-end processors and other technologies.

Meanwhile, Intel and Mobileye already have one big-name customer: BMW. The companies in July 2016 announced they were teaming up to bring fully automated vehicle to market by 2021. AT CES this year, the companies announced that autonomous BMW 7 Series vehicles would be hitting roads in the US and Europe this year for testing.

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