Intel makes $15.3bn bet on driverless cars

Intel has taken a huge gamble on driverless cars with a takeover of technology specialist Mobileye.

The US chipmaker will pay $15.3bn (£12.5bn) for the Israeli company, which develops autonomous driving systems, as it looks to move into a market it believes could be worth as much as $70bn by 2030.

Explaining the deal, Intel said that as cars "progress from assisted driving to fully autonomous, they are increasingly becoming data centres on wheels".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

According to the BBC, the company believes that by 2020, "driverless cars will generate 4,000GB, or four terabytes, of data a day that can be mined for information".

Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets, says: "It's an area where [Intel] has had very little presence - the automotive market - and so this is a tremendous opportunity for them to get into a market that has significant growth opportunities," said.

Earlier this month, Nissan tested its self-driving electric Leaf car, which it hopes to make available by 2020. Google and Uber have also extensively tested driverless cars and Apple is reported to be running trials.