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Intel Foundry executive Kevin O'Buckley moves to Qualcomm
Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 04:09 PM
Kevin O'Buckley, the head of Intel Foundry Services' customer engineering, has left Intel to join Qualcomm. This executive transition occurs as Intel continues its efforts to scale its foundry business and attract external chip design customers.
Context
Kevin O’Buckley, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel Foundry Services, has resigned to join Qualcomm as Vice President of Global Operations and Supply Chain, effective March 2, 2026. O’Buckley joined Intel in 2024 to lead its external customer acquisition strategy, a cornerstone of the company’s pivot toward contract manufacturing. His departure follows a September 2025 restructuring under CEO Lip-Bu Tan designed to flatten leadership and integrate foundry operations as the company faces sustained financial headwinds.
The move marks a significant personnel shift as Intel struggles to prove the commercial viability of its foundry model, which reported a $7 billion operating loss in 2023 and continued multi-billion-dollar deficits through 2025. Qualcomm gains a veteran executive to strengthen its supply chain as it diversifies into AI data centers and the automotive sector. While Intel maintains a foundry backlog of over $15 billion, this exit complicates its push to turn its 18A process node into a profitable enterprise by late 2026.
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