Mercedes-Benz has spun out its Silicon Valley–based chip engineering team into a standalone company named Athos Silicon, headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
The group had worked for about five years under Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, developing low-power, high-reliability chips for autonomous driving, drones, and related applications. As part of the spinout, Athos receives intellectual property from Mercedes and a “significant” investment, though neither party disclosed the exact amount.
A key focus for Athos is designing chiplets—modular chip components that can be packaged together—to achieve redundancy and safety standards while consuming much less power compared to traditional multi-chip architectures. The power efficiency is especially critical for electric vehicles where electronics compete with propulsion for energy.
Although Athos will operate independently, Mercedes-Benz retains a minority stake and the new firm will have its own board to preserve neutrality and allow collaboration with other automakers.
