Mobileye founder Shashua to hand over reins as CEO after almost three decades

Amnon Shashua, the architect of the Jerusalem-based autonomous car tech developer, seeks to leave day-to-day operations to focus on long-term tech trends, including humanoid robotics

Mobileye founder and one of the most prominent serial entrepreneurs, Prof. Amnon Shashua, announced plans on Thursday to step down as CEO after 27 years at the helm of the Jerusalem-based developer of technology for autonomous car systems.

The developer of advanced vision and self-driving technologies said Shashua will leave his role as CEO once a successor is appointed. He will remain a director at Mobileye and has been offered to serve as chairman of the Board.

“For nearly three decades, Mobileye has been my life’s work,” said Shashua. “As the company continues to grow and mature, I believe this is the right moment to establish the leadership structure that will be best suited for Mobileye’s next chapter.”

Shashua, 66, considered a pioneer in the autonomous car industry, said he will ‌shift his focus to longer-term technology development, particularly humanoids, which he sees as a major frontier for innovation.

“We built Mobileye from a research idea into a global technology company that has helped shape the future of automotive safety and autonomous driving,” said Shashua. “Today, we are entering a new era of physical AI, spanning ADAS, advanced hands-free driving, robotaxis and humanoids.”

The computer scientist is widely recognized for advances in the field of machine learning and computer vision with applications in autonomous driving, robotics and large language models. Shashua also co-founded Israel’s AI21 Labs, a natural language processing (NLP) company, which has the vision to bring generative AI to the masses and competes against OpenAI.

Shashua was the driving force of major milestones in Mobileye’s history, including the $15.3 billion buyout by US chipmaker Intel Corp. in 2017, marking the largest exit for an Israeli tech company at the time. In 2025, Intel divested almost $1 billion of its holdings in the Jerusalem-headquartered autonomous driving subsidiary, reducing its stake to about 77%.

Mobileye produces adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance technology in driverless cars, as well as driver assistance technology in manually driven cars. Its technology has been deployed in more than 250 million vehicles across more than 1,400 vehicle models around the world to help drivers avoid collisions and enhance road safety, the firm said.

Alongside the announcement about Shashua’s resignation, Mobileye reported second-quarter revenue of $508 million, beating LSEG estimates of $481.24 million, helped by what Shashua described as “strong momentum” in the company’s core business as it prepares for several advanced product launches in late 2026 and throughout 2027.

The company also forecast ‌a 5% to 6% revenue drop for the third quarter, overshadowing its strong April-June showing and ​sending shares down about 15% in their steepest single-day drop since August 2024.

Shashua is leaving at a time when Mobileye is expanding into humanoid robotics as it aims to define the future of physical AI and has plans to advance the rollout of commercial robotaxi services, as a first introduction of autonomous cars on the roads.

Earlier this year, Mobileye bought Mentee Robotics, an AI humanoid robotics startup co-founded by Shashua, in a deal worth $900 million. The deal was announced weeks after Mobileye laid off about 200 employees, or five percent of its global workforce. The layoffs, which were part of streamlining measures across the firm’s divisions, mostly affected its 3,000 employees in Israel. That’s as Mobileye has been shutting down some of its units in response to shrinking demand for certain products and declining revenue.

Reuters contributed to this report.