Intel will make Qualcomm chips in new foundry deal

Intel has announced its first major customer for its new Intel Foundry Services business: Qualcomm. Best known for designing the Snapdragon chips that power most major Android phones, Qualcomm will start to have its chips manufactured by Intel in the coming years using Intel’s upcoming 20A process.

No timeframe has been announced for when the first Intel-made Qualcomm chips will arrive or which of Qualcomm’s products Intel will produce.

Additionally, Amazon’s AWS will be working with Intel Foundry Services, relying on Intel’s packaging solutions (although Intel won’t be directly making chips for Amazon).

Qualcomm will rely on Intel’s newly announced Intel 20A technology node, scheduled for release in 2024. Intel 20A will introduce a new transistor architecture, RibbonFET, Intel’s first since 2011.

Intel previously announced its new foundry business as part of new CEO Pat Gelsinger’s “IDM 2.0” strategy shortly after he took the reins of the company. Intel Foundry Services was a key part of that plan, one that would see Intel expand beyond making its own chips to handle production for third-party companies. Qualcomm and Amazon mark the first — and the highest-profile — partners that Intel has announced so far for IFS, although Gelsinger has previously mentioned that Intel is in talks with over 100 companies for foundry work.