Mobileye, the Israeli driver-assistance and autonomous-driving company majority-owned by Intel, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mentee Robotics, an Israeli developer of humanoid robots, for about $900 million. The deal was announced at CES in Las Vegas on 6 January 2026.
Mobileye will pay about $612 million in cash and up to about 26.2 million of its Class A shares, with the share count subject to adjustment depending on how Mentee stock options vest before closing. The transaction was expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions.
Mentee will operate as an independent unit within Mobileye and will use Mobileye's training infrastructure, according to Globes. Mobileye said the deal would raise its 2026 operating expenses by a low single-digit percentage.
What Mentee built
Mentee Robotics was founded in 2022 by Amnon Shashua, Shai Shalev-Shwartz and Lior Wolf, according to SiliconAngle. Wolf, a former senior scientist at Facebook AI Research, is its chief executive. The company spent about two years in stealth before unveiling its first robot, the MenteeBot, in 2024, Calcalist reported.
The MenteeBot is designed to carry out tasks given in natural language, handling navigation, spatial awareness, object recognition and physical manipulation. Mentee trains its robots with a mix of simulation and human demonstration, with the aim of learning a task from a single example. The company targets logistics hubs and manufacturing lines and currently relies on Nvidia chips, Calcalist reported.
Mentee expects its first proof-of-concept deployments with customers in 2026, operating without remote human control, and is aiming for series production and commercial sales in 2028. Calcalist reported that it has no revenue yet.
“Today marks a new chapter for robotics and automotive AI and the beginning of Mobileye 3.0”
Why Mobileye is buying
Mobileye's revenue still comes mainly from advanced driver-assistance systems sold to carmakers. The acquisition moves it into what it calls physical AI: systems that perceive and act in the physical world, from vehicles to robots. Mobileye said it evaluated several robotics companies and chose Mentee for its "superior technology", Calcalist reported.
"Today marks a new chapter for robotics and automotive AI and the beginning of Mobileye 3.0," Shashua said. He argued that combining Mentee's robotics work with Mobileye's autonomy expertise would make the company a leader in physical AI across both markets. Calcalist noted that carmakers buying Mobileye's driver-assistance systems are also potential customers for factory robots.
The deal comes during a mixed period for Mobileye. It has faced a slowdown after excess inventory built up at customers and announced about 200 job cuts, around 4% of its workforce, in December 2025. It has also signed chip supply agreements with General Motors and Volkswagen and reports an order backlog of about $24 billion, according to Calcalist. Globes reported that Mobileye has $1.7 billion in cash and will keep more than $1 billion after the deal.
A deal between related parties
Shashua is Mobileye's chief executive, sits on its board and chairs Mentee, where he is the largest shareholder. Shalev-Shwartz is Mobileye's chief technology officer. Shashua recused himself from the board's review and vote. The deal was approved by Mobileye's board on the recommendation of a committee of independent directors, and by Intel, which controls about 85% of Mobileye.
Globes reported that Shashua will receive about $341 million, half in cash and half in Mobileye shares, and Shalev-Shwartz about $118 million before tax, also split between cash and stock. Goldman Sachs advised Mobileye.
The funding
Reports differ on how much Mentee raised before the sale. Calcalist reported a single $17 million round led by Ahren Innovation Capital. Globes put total funding at more than $40 million and, citing PitchBook, reported a valuation of $162 million in a March 2025 round, with investors including Israeli fund 10D, Ahren and Cisco Ventures. At $900 million, Mobileye is paying more than five times that last reported valuation.
