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Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

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Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#21

Post by phkahler »

tw04 wrote: post #16
TheGuyWhoCodes wrote: post #12

What's Intels play here? I'm glad the mobileye team get some nice purim bonus but we'll see in couple of years if Intel won't kill the product (and the team)...

Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after. Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that.

>> Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after.

I completely agree.

>> Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that.

But this, not so much. x86 is way too power hungry (especially for EVs) and way too expensive for automotive use.

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#22

Post by yogrish »

bhouston wrote: post #6

$16B is a great price for Mobileye's team, but I am not sure it is the best move for Intel. But I guess Intel will try to sell package deals to car markers and thus use this to try to keep NVIDIA and ARM from locking up the in-car market. Thus it is a strategic move on Intel's part to fend off competitors rather than reflective of the intrinsic value of Mobileye. BTW what was Mobileye's revenue last year and profit m…

Lot of consolidation in Autonomous Driving(AD) market. Samsung bought Harman, Google buying waze etc. As Continental CEO puts it "Traditional OEM/suppliers want to go from inside to outside, traditional IT companies are moving from outside to inside" ..a car basically. To track AD market this could be of interest to you https://www.2025ad.com/

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#24

Post by WhiteSource1 »

antoniuschan99 wrote: post #13
haroldship wrote: post #8

My wife has Mobileye in her car - it works quite well - warning you when you're too close to the car in front or when you're wandering out of your lane.

did it come with the car or is it aftermarket?

The collision avoidance systems (I presume OP is speaking about) is aftermarket. That's a small part of Mobileye's business, but it is based on the same technology.

BMWs and other high end cars have had Mobileye as OEM for a long time, but the company itself is a bit of a legacy company and not always run well (and is based in Jerusalem which is even more legacy) - but like many Israeli tech stories has great tech.

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#25

Post by bhouston »

aub3bhat wrote: post #7
bhouston wrote: post #6

$16B is a great price for Mobileye's team, but I am not sure it is the best move for Intel. But I guess Intel will try to sell package deals to car markers and thus use this to try to keep NVIDIA and ARM from locking up the in-car market. Thus it is a strategic move on Intel's part to fend off competitors rather than reflective of the intrinsic value of Mobileye. BTW what was Mobileye's revenue last year and profit m…

There is no such thing as intrinsic value. There is price and price ($16B) is determined by the market. Talking about PE and multiples is pointless for tech companies where synergies and rapid adoption/changes are common.

> There is no such thing as intrinsic value. There is price and price ($16B) is determined by the market.

"Intrinsic value" is a basic financial term that is widely used and has a well defined meaning - just type the term into Google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_value_(finance)

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#26

Post by samfisher83 »

phkahler wrote: post #21
tw04 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after. Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that.

>> Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after. I completely agree. >> Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that. But this, not so much. x86 is way too power hungry (especially for EVs) and…

Why do we still have this misnomer. The front end which decodes the x86 instructions is a small part of the overall chip. Intel made low power chips that were on phones using x86. They just had no competitive advantage in that space and left.

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#27

Post by Fricken »

Yeah, they're old school. They've got all sorts of deep industry partnerships and various driver assist and safety products. What they don't have is a Level 4 autonomous driving OS. Nobody does, it doesn't exist yet.

The whole 3 ring circus of chipmakers, OEM's, and various component suppliers that stand to benefit from Autonomous vehicles is held aloft by a single tentpole that doesn't actually exist yet. It's just a twinkle in the eye of some AI genius who may very well still be an undergrad at the moment. Intel just spent 15 gigabucks assuaging their fear of missing out.

The field of AI and deep learning in particular is changing and progressing so fast that the experts of yesteryear are almost certainly not the people who will build the autonomous OS of the future. There will be a lot of misspent capital between now and the first safe, reliable, market ready, publicly accessible fully autonomous vehicle.

Re: Intel buying Mobileye for up to $16B to expand in self-driving tech

#28

Post by baq »

phkahler wrote: post #21
tw04 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after. Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that.

>> Diversification. They see the writing on the wall for their CPU business and it's associated margins. They need other high-margin highly in demand tech products to go after. I completely agree. >> Furthermore, I'm guessing x86 has almost no representation in the self-driving car space at the moment. They're probably hoping to change that. But this, not so much. x86 is way too power hungry (especially for EVs) and…

> But this, not so much. x86 is way too power hungry (especially for EVs) and way too expensive for automotive use.

it isn't a power or efficiency problem. it's a margin problem. vehicle electronics have margins that consumer devices don't. just look at the price of 95% useless in-car satnav.

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