The agreement broadens Mobileye’s proficiencies in the field of robotics.
Mobileye will disburse $612 million in cash along with a maximum of 26,229,714 Class A shares for the creator of the humanoid robot, the firm announced. The transaction is anticipated to be finalized during the initial quarter of 2026. Mobileye’s stock experienced an increase exceeding 10% in Wednesday’s pre-market trading session.
The arrangement joins a rising number of prominent U.S. and Chinese car manufacturers investing in robots resembling humans, potentially replacing individuals in specific roles, such as vehicle assembly. Entities such as Tesla’s Optimus, and Hyundai Motor Co., which acquired Boston Dynamics, are counted among those putting capital into the technology. Nevertheless, the tech still possesses constraints: humanoid robots frequently malfunction, are costly to produce, and have limited battery life and carrying capacity.
“Robotics represents an expansion opportunity for Mobileye,” stated CEO Amnon Shashua in an interview. “Numerous synergies exist, and it is logical to consolidate them under unified management,” he appended. The deal materializes following Mobileye’s accord with an undisclosed U.S. automotive company to integrate safety software across 9 million vehicles.
Mobileye and Mentee were jointly established by Shashua, also serving as Mentee’s chairman. Another co-founder of Mentee, Shai Shalev-Schwartz, holds the position of CTO at Mobileye. Shashua holds ownership of over a third of Mentee and is slated to receive roughly $341 million in cash and shares from the deal, while Shalev-Schwartz will be allocated $118 million. Shashua recused himself from voting on the deal, which secured endorsement from Mobileye’s board and its principal shareholder, Intel Corp. Mobileye also revealed that Shashua’s son and son-in-law are employed at Mentee.
Established in 2022, Mentee is still advancing technology and engaging with customers regarding potential concepts. Up to now, the fledgling company has accumulated $50 million at an unrevealed valuation.
The market for humanoid robots intended for car assembly might attain $5 billion by 2035, as per Bloomberg Intelligence. Nevertheless, current models perform at approximately half the effectiveness of a human in intricate tasks and incur costs of around $150,000. The return on invested capital is achievable in approximately a decade.
Mentee will persist in operating autonomously for a minimum of two years and will secure entry to Mobileye’s client base, encompassing leading global auto manufacturers. The startup will commence installing humanoids in fulfillment hubs and manufacturing facilities. Mentee intends to engineer robots for residential usage, with Mobileye lending backing to production and assembly. Given a production scale of 100,000 units, the robot’s price could potentially diminish to $20,000.
At Mentee’s Herzliya office, located near Tel Aviv, several retired humanoid robots are suspended from ropes. “It’s a resting place for old robots,” explains CEO Lior Wolf. Within the premises, engineers are training the most recent model, a contemporary, human-sized humanoid robot that replaces batteries within another robot. The batteries possess a duration of several hours and require 40 minutes for recharge.
During the initial attempt, the robot progressed toward the mark and extracted the battery, but failed to hold the new one while installing it. In the subsequent attempt, the procedure met with success.
Despite the company being only four years of age and having less than 100 employees, almost all the hardware and software elements — actuators, batteries, robotic arms and algorithms — are crafted internally, Wolf pointed out.
Within the simulation, a multitude of humanoids execute tasks from diverse angles. “It is vital to reduce the gap between simulation and real-world application,” Wolf articulated. “Training inside the simulator is not challenging, but whether the robot is able to ambulate in reality poses the core challenge.”
“That’s why we maintain complete vertical integration of everything,” he supplemented. “We manage all the components and deploy algorithms to diminish that variance as much as feasible.”
Source: Bloomberg