Last year, Intel lost its CSO, CEO of products and head of AI.
Intel Foundry senior vice president and general manager Kevin O’Buckley is leaving the company to join Qualcomm, where he will lead the company’s semiconductor operations.
Naga Chandrasekaran, whose fund was expanded to include Intel Foundry months ago, will now lead the entire division, according to a statement from an Intel spokesperson.
In his new role, effective March 2, O’Buckley will report directly to Qualcomm senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief operating officer Akash Palkhiwala.
“Kevin brings deep operational expertise, proven commercial leadership, and decades of experience scaling complex semiconductor performance and delivering custom silicon products across data centers and edge devices,” said Palkhiwala.
“His leadership will continue to strengthen our global operations as we continue to deliver industry-leading products with high performance, low-power computing, AI and advanced connectivity.”
O’Buckley worked at Intel for less than two years, before which he led chipmaker Marvell as a senior vice president. O’Buckley also spent more than 17 years working in various roles at IBM.
“We thank Kevin O’Buckley for his contributions to the founding services and wish him the best as he pursues an opportunity outside the company,” an Intel spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware.
“The Intel Foundry remains one of Intel’s most important assets, and under Naga Chandrasekaran’s leadership the organization is focused on disciplined execution and customer delivery.”
Last September, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told Bloomberg that Intel’s manufacturing technology is not good enough to be used as a supplier.
Qualcomm makes chips for cell phones and computers. It is behind the Snapdragon series of mobile processors, laptops and extended reality sets.
Lip Bu-Tan has been trying to streamline senior management, cut costs and secure new Intel customers since taking over as CEO last March. Since then, the company has seen the exit of great leadership.
In June, chief strategy officer Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah left the company, which was followed by chief product officer Michelle Johnston Holthaus leaving the company in September after more than three decades on the job.
While November saw Intel’s chief technology and AI chief Sachin Katti leave to join OpenAI to build computing infrastructure for “general artificial intelligence”. Tan took over the company’s AI and advanced technology teams.
The US government currently owns a 10pc stake in Intel, while Nvidia owns $5bn of the company’s stock and SoftBank has invested $2bn in the company.
Intel has been working closely with SambaNova, an upstart chipmaker led by Tan. SambaNova recently announced a $350 million raise and strategic investment from Intel to accelerate its Intel-powered AI cloud.
Qualcomm subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies has announced an investment of €125 million to develop its Cork city center and create 300 new jobs.
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