Intel’s revised roadmap includes building chips for Qualcomm

The company plans to catch up with its foundry rivals by 2025.

Intel this week announced that it is teaming up with Qualcomm to manufacture some of Qualcomm’s future chips.

Intel will manufacture the chips for Qualcomm using that 20A process technology. Qualcomm currently uses multiple foundries to build its Snapdragon processors and other chips. These chips mainly power smartphones and other portable devices.

Aside from the planned partnership, Intel did not divulge which Qualcomm products it would produce or when. The 20A design is expected to be available starting in 2024. But Intel did not provide a timeline for when it will begin working with Qualcomm.

Details are missing, but Intel’s end goal for 2025 is clear

Intel says that its 20A manufacturing process introduces RibbonFET, the first new transistor architecture since FinFET in 2011. The 20A technology brings faster transistor switching speeds and a smaller footprint.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that Intel is aiming to be on a “clear path to process performance leadership by 2025.”

“Building on Intel’s unquestioned leadership in advanced packaging, we are accelerating our innovation roadmap to ensure we are on a clear path to process performance leadership by 2025,” Gelsinger said during the global “Intel Accelerated” webcast.

“We are leveraging our unparalleled pipeline of innovation to deliver technology advances from the transistor up to the system level. Until the periodic table is exhausted, we will be relentless in our pursuit of Moore’s Law and our path to innovate with the magic of silicon.”

Intel will manufacture Qualcomm’s chips under Intel’s new Intel Foundry Services business. Intel wants to become a major provider of foundry capacity and manufacture chips for other companies. To do so, it is building two new chip factories in Arizona.

The new factories form the basis of Intel’s roadmap to expand its new foundry business. The goal is to catch rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd by 2025.