Mobileye Global Inc., an automotive chip company, has announced that it will acquire Mentee Robotics Ltd., an AI humanoid robotics startup, in a $900 million deal.
The deal includes $612 million in cash and up to 26.2 million shares of Mobileye Class A stock. The final number of shares may change depending on how many Mentee employee options are vested before the deal is completed.
Founded in 2022, Mentee Robotics is an Israeli startup that builds humanoid robots.
The company was co-founded by Prof. Amnon Shashua (founder and CEO of Mobileye), Prof. Lior Wolf (CEO of Mentee and former Director at Facebook AI Research), and Prof. Shai Shalev-Shwartz, a well-known machine-learning researcher.
The company aims to build smart, general-purpose humanoid robots that can work in real-life environments, such as warehouses and homes, using advanced AI instead of fixed and rigid automation systems.
Mentee Robotics uses AI as the core of its technology. Its robots learn tasks through a mix of simulations and human demonstrations. This means a robot can learn from just one human example and then practice the same task millions of times in virtual training, helping it master complex jobs. This “mentoring” method reduces the need for large amounts of real-world data, which is usually a big challenge in robotics.
Mentee has created a series of humanoid robots called MenteeBot. These robots use Mentee’s own hardware and software, including movable arms and legs, strong actuators that can lift heavy objects and smart AI that combines vision, control, and decision-making.
The company focuses on jobs where traditional industrial robots struggle, especially in busy and changing environments like warehouses, logistics centers and service areas. Its robots are designed for general-purpose tasks such as lifting, handling objects, and moving around.
For Mobileye, this acquisition expands its business into physical AI — smart systems that can understand their surroundings, interact naturally with people, and work safely and efficiently in the real world at a large scale.
“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.”
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