Niket Nishant and Anirban Sen

(Reuters] -Intel Corp’s self-driving vehicle unit Mobileye (F) has confidentially applied for an initial public offer in the United States Monday. This sets the stage for what will be the largest stock exchange flotations of this year.

Mobileye will be listed as part of Intel’s overall strategy to improve its core business under Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger.

Over the past several years, big investors have invested heavily in technologies that are used for global transportation. Intel plans to profit from the increased demand by listing Mobileye’s shares.

The technology behind driverless cars is gaining traction among traditional automakers, such as Ford Motor Co (NYSE:) Co, General Motors Co(NYSE:)) and Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:) Corp has been investing in models that include driver-assist or self-driving technology.

Intel however is trying to explore capital markets during a period when investor interest has waned substantially due to recent stock exchange volatility, amid concerns of looming rate rises and geopolitical tensions.

Dealogic reports that traditional U.S. IPOs raised $2.33 billion more than $26.67 million during the same time last fiscal year. Since then, many companies have either delayed or cancelled their plans to go public.

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Intel has not provided any additional information about the IPO. However, the company previously indicated that the largest portion of the shares sale proceeds would go to it. Gelsinger indicated in December that some funds from the sale will go to building new Intel chip plants.

It had previously stated that the chip company will retain a majority of the unit’s shares after the IPO. People familiar with the matter stated that Mobileye could be valued at over $50 billion by Reuters in December. However, due to recent volatility Mobileye might not get the same valuation.

Mobileye was an Israeli firm that Intel acquired for around $15.3 billion. In 2017, it used a camera-based system to provide driverless vehicles with adaptive cruise control and assistance when changing lanes.

In 1999, the company was founded. It plans to build its own “lidar sensor” to allow cars to map a 3-D view of roads. In the interim, it is using lidar devices from Luminar Technologies for its first robotaxis.

Mobileye counts BMW (DE:), Audi (DE:), Nissan, OTC:), Honda, General Motors and General Motors among its clients. This has helped Intel to stand out from the stiff competition of Nvidia (NASDAQ) Corp and Qualcomm(NASDAQ:) Inc.

Despite being pressured by activist investors to spin off Intel’s chip operations in Intel, Gelsinger still intends to invest billions to increase its U.S. chip manufacturing capacity and expand its market share.