Intel Corp. announced late today that it plans to list shares publicly in Mobileye, the self-driving car company it acquired for $15.3 billion in 2017, in mid-2022.

The announcement follows a report shortly before from The Wall Street Journal. Referring to people familiar with the matter, the Journal said the listing could value Mobileye at north of $50 billion.

Intel said it will remain the majority owner of Mobileye, adding that it “will continue to fully consolidate Mobileye.” The chipmaking giant also said the two companies will continue as strategic partners, collaborating on projects as they pursue the growth of computing in the automotive sector. Noting one point of the partnership, Intel pointed out that the share of semiconductors is expected to be 20% of a premium vehicle’s total bill of materials by 2030.

The Mobileye executive team will remain with the unit and Amnon Shashua will continue as chief executive. Transit navigation app Moovit, which Intel acquired last May, along with Intel teams working on lidar and radar development and other Mobileye projects, will be “aligned” as part of Mobileye.

“Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye has been a great success,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in prepared remarks. “Mobileye has achieved record revenue year-over-year with 2021 gains expected to be more than 40% higher than 2020, highlighting the powerful benefits to both companies of our ongoing partnership.”

Founded in 1999, Mobileye does not design or make self-driving cars but rather develops the technology that powers camera systems used by autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. The company leverages leading technology, including artificial intelligence, deep learning and crowdsourcing to create hardware and software for use by automakers.

While far from a household name, Mobileye offers technology that’s used by more than 25 global automakers in advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS, and autonomous vehicles. Some of those customers include BMW, Audi AG, Volkswagen AG, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and General Motors Co. The company has been described in the past as Tesla’s main rival when it comes to self-driving vehicles.

With the ongoing development of ADAS and autonomous vehicles, Mobileye has also seen increased business, reportedly with revenue of $326 million in the third quarter, up 39% year-over-year.

The IPO would be the latest move by Gelsinger to revive Intel’s fortunes. Gelsinger became CEO in February and from the get-go indicated a shift in focus back to fundamentals. In March, Gelsinger said Intel would spend $20 billion to build two new chip manufacturing facilities, while longstanding executive Navin Shenoy left Intel in June amid a restructuring of Intel’s data center business.

In September, Intel said it could invest up to $95 billion in new European chip factories amid an ongoing global chip shortage.

Mobileye notably doesn’t use Intel chips in its products. The sale also would not be the first for Intel in recent times, as the company announced a deal in October to sell its NAND flash memory business to South Korean firm SK Hynic Inc. for $9 billion.

The report dropped toward the tail end of after-hours trading and investors liked the news. Intel’s stock price rose more than 8% after the bell.

Photo: Intel