Mobileye closing on IPO after filing for Nasdaq listing

Intel’s self-driving unit Mobileye on Friday unveiled its filing for a U.S. initial public offering, testing support for a high profile stock debut even as the market for new issues has virtually collapsed.

According to a report by Bloomberg last month, Intel is expecting the IPO to value Mobileye at $30 billion, which is $20 billion less than what was reported when the initial plan to go public was announced last year.

The tech IPO market globally is in the middle of its worst drought in nearly two decades. U.S. listings have raised a little over $7 billion so far this year, according to data from Dealogic. Last year traditional IPOs, excluding special purpose acquisition companies, had raised a record $154 billion.

Mobileye CEO and founder Amnon Shashua.

Mobileye's IPO, coming on the heels of Porsche's blockbuster debut in Europe, could, however, be an early sign of improving investor sentiment.

If Mobileye's debut is received well, it may embolden other big names such as Instacart, Reddit and ServiceTitan, which postponed their IPOs earlier this year until the market improves.

Mobileye, which confidentially filed for its IPO earlier this year, reported first-half revenue of $854 million, a 21% jump from the year-ago period, according to its IPO filing. In 2021, Mobileye posted $1.4 billion of revenue.

In its filing on Friday, Mobileye confirmed that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters. Mobileye plans to list shares on Nasdaq under the ticker "MBLY."

The Mobileye listing is part of Intel's broader strategy under Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger to turn around its core business.

Mobileye, bought by Intel for about $15.3 billion in 2017, uses a camera-based system with adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance in driverless cars. In addition to self-driving chips and software, Mobileye offers driver assistance technology and mapping technology that are in use today.

Mobileye, which counts BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Honda and General Motors as its clients, has been a bright spot for Intel, which faces stiff competition in chip-making from Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Intel announced last December its plans to take Mobileye public in the United States in mid-2022. However, after several months without any updates from either company, Mobileye Founder and CEO Amnon Shashua sent a letter to employees two months ago in which he explained the reasons behind the delay. "The issue is the 'market condition'. I do not need to tell you about the status of the stock market – you all see it for yourselves. The problem with the 'bad market condition' is not valuation but stability. Lack of stability, or high volatility, on the other hand, could have a negative effect on the results of any IPO, both on the date of the IPO and going forward. I believe that achieving the target of a successful IPO, and sustaining such success for the long term, requires us to wait for the market to stabilize. We still hope it will happen during 2022. This is all there is to it. In the meantime, our business is thriving, we are growing on all fronts and the future was never brighter."