After seven years, Mobileye inaugurates new Jerusalem office campus
NIS 1 billion-plus complex in the Har Hotzvim tech park to be the main R&D site of the self-driving auto technology firm
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
After seven years, Israel’s Mobileye on Tuesday inaugurated its new Jerusalem office campus at an investment of more than NIS 1 billion ($273 million).
The developer of advanced vision and driver assistance systems said that the 128,000-square-meter office complex located at the Har Hotzvim tech park serves as its new global headquarters and main R&D facility. The campus has four buildings aboveground spread out over 50,000 square meters, including office space, conference rooms and shared meeting work spaces where employees can meet and share ideas. Seven floors were built underground spread across 78,000 square meters.
The complex will house about 2,700 employees in R&D positions as well as management positions and includes specialized labs and a vehicle workshop custom-built for the development of technologies for assisted and autonomous driving, as well as exhibition space.
The co-founder of the self-driving auto technologies firm, Amnon Shashua, described the opening of the campus in Jerusalem as a “milestone on Mobileye’s path.”
The “opening illustrates Mobileye’s great commitment to its employees and the place where it was built,” CEO Shashua remarked. “Mobileye was born in Jerusalem, and as you can see it will stay in Jerusalem.”
Mobileye employs about 3,600 people worldwide, of whom 3,300 work in Israel at the company’s offices in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Jerusalem.
Plans for the new office campus were disclosed in 2017 shortly after Intel Corp. said it would acquire Mobileye for $15.3 billion and it would become the US giant’s hub for developing autonomous vehicle technologies.
The facility includes underground electric vehicle charging stations and parking for bicycles. The campus roof spread over 1,500 square meters includes an open gym, a basketball court, a running track and a cafe with a view of the Jerusalem mountains.
The opening comes after Mobileye earlier this month announced that it was shutting down its aftermarket solutions unit that provided retrofitted advanced driver assistance technology, as demand for this product has dropped and revenue has slumped. As a result 130 employees globally were let go, most of whom were based in Israel.
