Intel and driverless technology firm Mobileye have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Intel will acquire Mobileye for for $15.3 billion, the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli high-tech company.

Under the terms of the agreement, a subsidiary of Intel will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Mobileye for $63.54 per share in cash, representing a fully-diluted equity value of approximately $15.3 billion and an enterprise value of $14.7 billion.

The acquisition will couple Intel's high-performance computing and connectivity expertise and Mobileye's computer vision expertise to create automated driving solutions from the cloud through the network to the car.

Mobileye has industry leading technology for the vision engine (seeing the world). The sensor data from cameras is used to build an environmental model of the vehicle's surroundings and the Mobileye analytics are needed to understand the surrounding environment including other cars, road signs, pedestrians, and any other object a car will normally encounter.

In addition, Mobileye is focusing effort into developing its multi-camera-based HD map enhancing Road Experience Management (REM) system.

By joining together with Intel, Mobileye can enhance and accelerate Mobileye's existing ADAS and autonomous driving programs through additional know- how in the areas of mapping, virtual driver, simulators, hardware, data centers, and high-performance computing platforms.

Intel estimates the vehicle systems, data and services market opportunity to be up to $70 billion by 2030.

The two companies are already collaborating with German automaker BMW on a project to put a fleet of around 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.

Until receently, Mobileye relied on chipmaker STMicroelectronics to produce chips which the Israeli company sells to many of the world's top automakers for its current, third-generation of driver-assistance systems.

However, while it was working with BMW, Mobileye also teamed up with Intel for its fifth-generation of chips that aim to be used in fully autonomous vehicles and are scheduled to be delivered around 2021.

Last October, Qualcomm announced a $47 billion deal to acquire NXP, the largest automotive chip supplier, putting pressure on other chipmakers seeking to make inroads into the market for autonomous driving components, including Intel, Mobileye and rival NVIDIA.