Automotive chip maker Mobileye Global Inc. announced today that it has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence humanoid robotics company Mentee Robotics Ltd. in a $900 million deal.

The deal consists of $612 million in cash and up to 26.2 million shares in Mobileye Class A common stock, subject to adjustment based on the vesting of any Mentee options before closing.

Founded in 2022, Mentee Robotics is an Israeli humanoid robotics startup co-founded by Prof. Amnon Shashua, founder and chief executive of Mobileye, Mentee CEO and former Facebook AI Research Director Prof. Lior Wolf and Prof. Shai Shalev-Shwartz, a renowned machine-learning researcher.

The company’s mission has been to build intelligent, general-purpose humanoid robots that can operate in real-world environments, though in warehouses or household spaces, using advanced AI rather than rigid, predefined automation.

The use of AI is core to Mentee’s approach, as it aims to train its robots using a combination of simulation-based learning and human demonstration that allows a robot to learn complex tasks from a single human example and then generalize that behavior in millions of virtual training iterations. The “mentoring” paradigm is designed to overcome one of the biggest bottlenecks in robotics — the need for massive amounts of real-world data — by turning limited demonstrations into rich datasets for learning.

Mentee has developed the MenteeBot series of humanoid robots that includes proprietary hardware and software, including articulated limbs, actuators capable of handling significant payloads and combinatorial AI that integrates perception, control and decision-making.

For its robots, Mentee is targeting use cases where traditional industrial robots fall short, especially in unstructured or dynamic environments like logistics hubs or service spaces, by focusing on general-purpose capabilities, such as lifting, manipulation and navigation.

For Mobileye, the acquisition will broaden the scope of its business with a step toward physical AI in general — systems designed to understand context, infer intent, interact naturally with humans and act safely and effectively in the physical world in an economically scalable manner.

The acquisition will also accelerate Mentee’s go-to-market strategy, with first on-site proof-of-concept deployments with customers expected in 2026. The deployments are intended to operate autonomously without teleoperation and series production and commercialization are targeted for 2028.

“Today marks a new chapter for robotics and automotive AI and the beginning of Mobileye 3.0,” said Shashua. “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.”

Coming into its acquisition, Mentee had raised around $17 million, according to data from Tracxn, although some sources put the amount raised as high as $41 million. Investors in the company included Ahren Innovation Capital LP, Hookipa Pharma AG and Cisco Investments Inc.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

Photo: Mentee Robotics