Nearly 27 years after co-founding Mobileye, Amnon Shashua has said he will step down as chief executive once a successor is appointed. The announcement came on July 23, 2026. More than three months later, as of reporting from October 25, no replacement has been named, the stock has hit an all-time low, and the market is waiting to learn which direction the company’s next leader will take it.
What was announced
According to coverage of the company’s announcement, Mobileye’s board will hire an executive search firm and run a comprehensive process. Shashua has been offered the role of chairman, in which he would focus on long-term technology direction and the humanoid robotics expansion, and would stay on as a director through the transition. Reports differ on his status: Globes says he has been proposed as chairman, while AI Weekly, citing TechCrunch, says he has been offered the job but has not decided. Board Chairman Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah said the board is focused on selecting a leader for the next phase of growth. Intel, which holds roughly 77% of Mobileye, said it looks forward to working with the incoming CEO.
Why a founder would hand over the wheel
The clearest explanation is where Shashua wants to spend his time. In January 2026, Mobileye acquired Mentee Robotics, a humanoid robot company Shashua founded, for about $900 million. 36Kr reports the price as $612 million in cash plus up to 26.2 million Class A shares, whereas other coverage simply cites roughly $900 million in cash and shares, so the exact structure is worth confirming in filings. Because the deal involved the CEO’s own startup, he recused himself from the board vote. Mentee has said it plans on-site customer validation in 2026, production with automotive manufacturing partners in 2027 and large-scale production in 2028, starting with industrial use before households. 36Kr notes that Mentee has not announced large public customer deployments, while rivals such as Figure AI and Tesla are further along.
Shashua has described the broader direction as Mobileye 3.0: a shift from selling chips and driver-assistance systems to operating mobility services itself. In June, Mobileye announced plans to launch its own robotaxi service in a US city in 2027, though no city has been disclosed. 36Kr reports Shashua’s estimate that each vehicle could generate about $125,000 in annual revenue at a cost below $100,000. That is a company estimate, not an independently verified figure.
The business he is leaving behind
The financial picture is mixed. Second-quarter revenue was $508 million, above the $485 million analysts expected but flat year over year, according to 36Kr. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.19 beat a $0.06 forecast, though about $93 million came from an Israeli research and development incentive. Third-quarter revenue is guided down 5% to 6% year over year. Shares fell nearly 15% the day after the earnings release, and one report notes a decline of roughly 60% since the 2022 re-listing.
On Friday, October 23, the stock fell 5.9% to $6.54, a market value of $5.6 billion, an all-time low, per Globes. Analysts are split. Citi initiated coverage at Buy with an $11 target, citing continued automotive safety investment. RBC downgraded to Underperform and cut its target from $7 to $5, pointing to intensifying competition.
The succession question is really a strategy question
Who the board picks will signal what the company is. As AI Weekly’s coverage argued, a hire from the auto industry would point to the supplier business as the core, with robotaxis as a side bet. A robotics or AI operator would suggest that humanoids and mobility services are the main event. Founder transitions are rarely clean when the founder remains chairman, since the new CEO inherits a strategy partly shaped by the person overseeing them. The related-party nature of the Mentee deal also means governance details will draw scrutiny.
Shashua’s story also reflects a pattern: founders who build a category leader often become the person best placed to start the next category, but the company they leave still needs a disciplined operator. Co-founder Ziv Aviram, who ran operations and finance in the early years, shows how that split of technical and operational leadership can work for decades.
What This Means for Philippine Founders
The lesson is about succession planning, which most early-stage Philippine founders postpone. A founder who wants to move to a new venture, or who simply tires of operations, needs a defined process: who decides, who searches, what role the founder keeps. Mobileye’s board is running this publicly and slowly; a startup can do it earlier and quietly by documenting responsibilities and developing a second-in-command before it is urgent.
The second lesson is related-party discipline. If you sell or merge one venture into another, investors will want recusals, independent valuation and clear disclosure. That applies as much to a Cebu-based founder with two entities as to a listed company. Whether any specific Philippine startup is considering a comparable transition is unconfirmed, but founders raising institutional money should expect these questions in due diligence.
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