Intel Foundry’s Kevin O’Buckley joins Qualcomm

At Qualcomm, O’Buckley will lead global semiconductor operations across manufacturing engineering, foundry and supplier partnerships, supply chain and procurement, reporting directly to Akash Palkhiwala, executive vice-president, CFO and COO of Qualcomm.

Intel entered the foundry market in 2010 and O’Buckley has been senior vice-president and general manager of IFS since 2024. The US government holds a significant stake in IFS through Chips Act funding. Despite this, IFS reported an operating loss of $2.5bn in Q4 2025.  Recent gains for IFS include some Apple foundry business and there are reports that Nvidia is looking at IFS for its 2028 Feynman GPUs.

Intel’s latest Fab52 in Phoenix, Arizona, is the site for its 18A /Panther Lake mass production. Arizona is also home to the largest TSMC foundry, which received $6.6bn in Chips Act funding from the US government.

Intel Q4 loss-making with revenue decline; forecasts more declines