In an unexpected turn of events, Kevin O'Buckley, the head of Intel Foundry, decided to jump ship for Qualcomm after just two years at the company. From now on, Intel Foundry will be headed by Naga Chandrasekaran, who was previously in charge of front-end process technology development and manufacturing.
"We thank Kevin O'Buckley for his contributions to Foundry Services and wish him the very best as he pursues an opportunity outside the company," an Intel spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "Intel Foundry remains one of Intel's highest strategic priorities, and under Naga Chandrasekaran's leadership the organization is focused on disciplined execution and delivering for customers."
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As Chief Technology and Operations Officer as well as the head of Intel Foundry, Chandrasekaran now oversees both development of advanced process technologies and day-to-day execution of Intel's global manufacturing network, a role that Intel previously lacked as both O'Buckley and Stuart Pann before him were responsible for day-to-day execution and expansion efforts, but not development of advanced fabrication technologies.
By contrast, Chandrasekaran is in charge of creating and rolling out next-generation silicon logic nodes, advanced packaging solutions, and test technologies, while also supervising front-end wafer fabrication and back-end assembly and packaging operations worldwide. In addition, Chandrasekaran leads Intel Foundry's customer engagement and ecosystem initiatives, as well as strategic planning, corporate quality and reliability programs, and the company’s supply chain operations. In short, he runs the technology roadmap and the factories.
As executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry, Naga Chandrasekaran has been in charge of Intel Foundry and Foundry Services since September, so making him the GM of the whole Intel Foundry organization looks like a logical move for Intel. Naga Chandrasekaran was previously the head of technology and operations at Intel Foundry, overseeing front-end process technology development and manufacturing. In this capacity, he was already in charge of both the Technology Development (TD) group and the Foundry Manufacturing and Supply Chain (FMSC) organization, which he has been overseeing since mid-2024.
Navid Shahriari will continue to be responsible for packaging development and operations at Intel Foundry.
As for O’Buckley, he will be executive vice president in charge of Qualcomm's Global Operations and Supply Chain and will lead the company's worldwide chip production activities, overseeing manufacturing engineering, relationships with contract manufacturers, and component vendors. O'Buckley will report directly to Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm’s executive vice president, CFO and COO. After spending seven years at IBM Microelectronics and GlobalFoundries and then a little less than two years at Intel Foundry, O'Buckley will now supervise how Qualcomm turns its designs into finished silicon.
Whether or not Intel Foundry will produce any of Qualcomm's future designs is something that remains to be seen.
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