Mercedes-Benz has spun out its Silicon Valley semiconductor team into a new company called Athos, transferring both the intellectual property developed by the group and what the automaker described as a “significant” investment. Neither Mercedes-Benz nor Athos disclosed the financial details of the transaction.
In automotive applications, reliability is crucial, particularly for self-driving functions, which often rely on multiple redundant chips to prevent failures. The Athos team has developed a solution using “chiplets”—small modular pieces of chips that can be combined within a single package to achieve the same reliability.
According to Athos CEO Charnjiv Bangar, integrating chips into a single package can reduce power consumption by 10 to 20 times compared with separate chips communicating across a circuit board. Such energy savings are critical for electric vehicles, where computing systems compete with other vehicle functions for limited power. “For an electric future, electricity is a new currency,” Bangar explained.
Athos Silicon plans to seek venture capital from other investors. While Mercedes-Benz will remain a minority shareholder, Bangar confirmed that Athos will have an independent board. “Independence is important for Athos, so that we can collaborate with other carmakers, including competitors of Mercedes. We aim to maintain a neutral approach,” he said.