Over the course of the past week, the number of stakeholders in buzzed-about Geran mapping provider HERE has doubled from three to six, but now there’s yet another investor.

Intel Corp. today disclosed plans to buy a stake in HERE to the Federal Cartel Office, Germany’s equivalent of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The document didn’t specify the size of the investment but Reuters cited an anonymous insider as saying that it’s looking to buy 15 percent of the company’s equity. This figure, which later received an official confirmation, is poised to make Intel the largest investor in HERE behind the German automaker group that originally acquired it from Nokia Corp. last year.

That consortium is made up of BMW AG, Audi AG and Daimler AG, which owns Mercedes-Benz. Thomas Weber, a board member for Daimler, revealed that the group is looking for additional investors in HERE last April. He listed the likes of Microsoft Corp. as potential backers but didn’t mention any of the firms that have come aboard so far.

The car makers scored their first major win last week after Chinese navigation provider NavInfo Co. Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Singaporean fund GIC bought a 10 percent stake in HERE. As part of the deal, the mapping provider will team up with its new Asian investors to bring its technology into the lucrative Chinese auto market. Their efforts are set to place a particular emphasis on autonomous vehicles. 

Intel’s motivation for investing in HERE is similar. The driverless cars and other new generations of vehicles that are hitting the road require a great deal of processing power to support their capabilities, which is creating massive demand for embedded processors. It’s such a big opportunity that Qualcomm Inc. recently agreed to shell out a massive $47 billion for Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors NV, the largest chip supplier to the auto industry.

Intel’s investment in HERE could boost its  autonomous navigation efforts and thus accelerate the evolution of smart vehicles, indirectly lifting processor demand along the way. In the near term, the investment will buy the chip maker a stake in one of the auto industry’s leading digital suppliers. The influence that comes along with this stake may prove invaluable as smart vehicles emerge as an increasingly important revenue source for Intel.

The company’s filing didn’t disclose the dollar value of its investment. However, the fact that the auto maker group originally paid Nokia $3 billion for HERE suggests the price was in the nine figures, especially given the high investor interest.

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