Intel Corporation has publicly announced that it is going to acquire AI-powered transit startup Moovit for $900m($1 billion appx). Thus with this deal, the American Chip giant is intending to develop the technology developed by Moovit to the level of Google Maps with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics.
Although Moovit CEO Nir Erez is still not in a position to discuss or reveal the developments, the spokesperson of the company has confirmed the purchase deal.
Trade analysts say that the new purchase will help Intel in developing the technology anchored by Mobileye which is an autonomous driving company purchased by Intel in 2017 for $15.3 billion.
Financially speaking, Moovit has been receiving strategic investment from Intel Capital from the past two years and now will become a part of Intel’s Israeli autonomous hub.
Note 1- Moovit is a 2012 startup that is a GPS Navigation software offering company providing mobility as a service and journey planners for transit companies, cities, and transit agencies like Uber and other cab services. It also has a history of holding a Mega transit data repository compiled from customer demands and traffic patterns of more than 7,500 key transit agencies and operators who are among its 800 million users worldwide.
Note 2- In December 2019 Intel acquired Habana Labs, a Caesarea based AI Chipmaker for $2 billion.
Note 3- As the world has gone into a lockdown mode from the past 45 days or so, Moovit’s app usage is reported to have drastically dropped off. But the company has switched its business to emergency services where people like doctors and law enforcement personnel need to travel from point A to B.
