Intel will build chips for Qualcomm as part of its ambitious foundry plans

Earlier today, Intel unveiled detailed plans for its future chip technology, describing how it plans to catch rivals TSMC and Samsung by 2025. It also revealed that it will start building chips for Qualcomm using its first new transistor architecture in a decade. In addition, the company will supply its packaging tech to Amazon for its AWS data centers. 

Intel’s biggest technology leap will happen in 2024 when the company ushers in its RibbonFET and PowerVia technology (below). RibbonFET will be a new kind of “gate-all-around” transistor delivering faster switching speeds in a smaller footprint. PowerVia, meanwhile, will be a backside power delivery system “eliminating the need for power routing on the front side of the wafer” and making chips more efficient.

Intel will manufacture chips for Qualcomm using that 20A process technology, though it didn’t say which products it would produce or when. Qualcomm currently uses multiple foundries to build its Snapdragon processors and other chips, used mainly in smartphones and other portable devices. 

CEO Pat Gelsinger first laid out Intel’s ambitious foundry plans earlier this year as part of the company’s IDM 2.0 strategy, saying it would invest $20 billion in two Arizona fab plants. Now, it needs to deliver on all that if it wants to keep building its own chips, let alone products for companies the size of Qualcomm and Amazon.