Core Viewpoint - Mercedes-Benz has spun off a group of chip experts into a new company, Athos Silicon, focused on developing next-generation computing brains for autonomous vehicles, drones, and other vehicles [1][3]. Group 1: Company Overview - Athos Silicon is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and its engineering team previously worked at Mercedes-Benz's North American R&D center for five years [1]. - The company will receive intellectual property developed by the group and significant investment from Mercedes-Benz, although the transaction value has not been disclosed [3]. Group 2: Technology and Innovation - Reliability is crucial for automotive chips, leading to the use of multiple independent chips for critical autonomous driving functions to ensure backup in case of failure [3]. - Athos has developed a method using "chiplets" to achieve the same reliability, allowing multiple small chips to be packaged together, which can reduce power consumption by 10 to 20 times compared to independent chips [3]. - This energy efficiency is vital for electric vehicles, as the computing core must compete for limited battery power [3]. Group 3: Strategic Positioning - Athos Silicon plans to raise venture capital from other investors and aims to maintain a neutral stance to engage with other automakers, including competitors of Mercedes-Benz [4]. - Mercedes-Benz will hold a minority stake in Athos Silicon, which will have an independent board [3].