Mercedes-Benz spins off chip team to form Athos Silicon
Mercedes-Benz has announced a collaboration with semiconductor company Athos Silicon to accelerate the development of advanced chiplet architectures for autonomous computing.
The partnership builds on chiplet-based research that began in 2020 at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA). Athos Silicon, founded by former MBRDNA engineers, will continue the work as an independent company. Mercedes-Benz stated that the collaboration will help scale the modular system-on-chip (mSoC) platform for use in next-generation autonomous driving systems and other high-performance computing applications.
The automaker said it has contributed intellectual property and investment to support the spin-off, allowing Athos Silicon to expand development with the help of industry partners. The initiative reflects Mercedes-Benz’s strategy of promoting innovation through external ecosystem collaborations, particularly within Silicon Valley.
“Open chiplet approaches—such as UCIe—show promise for future high-performance compute architectures,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Chief Technology Officer, in the press release. “Athos Silicon, an independent company with roots in research initiated at Mercedes-Benz in 2020, will pursue its own path to develop these ideas for broader industry use.”
Mercedes-Benz joined the UCIe Consortium in 2023 as the first automotive OEM member and has since contributed to shaping industry standards for chiplet-based interconnects. According to the company, the collaboration with Athos Silicon positions Mercedes-Benz as a co-creator of next-generation high-performance computing architectures designed to support future autonomous vehicle platforms.
