Key leader named for Intel’s foundry business
Intel has named industry veteran Kevin O’Buckley to fill a key role in the company’s ambitious bid to take the lead in contract chip manufacturing.
O’Buckley succeeded Stuart Pann as senior vice president and general manager of foundry services, starting on Monday, said Intel (Nasdaq: INTC).
O’Buckley will oversee the “customer service and ecosystems operations division” of Intel Foundry, the new unit that CEO Pat Gelsinger is gambling can become second only to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM) as a contract chip manufacturer by 2030.
With support from the CHIPS Act, Intel is spending billions on new manufacturing capacity in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon in the U.S. and making investments overseas.
Intel has been one of the largest employers in the Valley for decades, with more than 12,000 workers, but the company is in the midst of a massive expansion in Chandler as it grows its presence with two new semiconductor chip factories. Those factories, on which Intel started construction in September 2021, will employ 3,000 more people once completed. They are expected to be the first in Intel’s system with a dedicated capacity just for the foundry business.
TSMC is also a big CHIPS Act recipient working on major operations in the Valley with construction of two north Phoenix manufacturing facilities underway and some operations already started there. It increased its Arizona investment to $65 billion from $40 billion with plans to build a third facility. TSMC is expected to start production in the first half of 2025 and employ more than 6,000 workers, up from the 4,500 initially anticipated.
O’Buckley comes to Intel from Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRLV), a data infrastructure chip designer, where he was senior vice president of hardware engineering for its custom, compute and storage group. Earlier, O’Buckley had a four-year stint at chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries and spent more than 17 years at IBM.
Intel recently began reporting its chipmaking results separately from its chip design and marketing operations. A $7 billion operating loss revealed for 2023 jarred investors and an even bigger loss is expected this year. Intel forecast breakeven by 2027 and a foundry profit margin of 30% by 2030.
Improved process technology
Getting there will depend on exploiting improved technology — another focus of Gelsinger’s — to bring in customers.
“As we continue building the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, Kevin will play a critical role in helping customers achieve their goals by leveraging Intel Foundry’s unique ability to deliver process and packaging technology through a resilient and sustainable supply chain,” Gelsinger said in a written statement.
O’Buckley will report directly to Gelsinger as a member of Intel’s executive leadership team.
Pann spent 35 years with Intel and held the foundry services position since March 2023. He’s retiring at the end of the month, although he will remain an adviser during the transition, Intel said.
Intel employs 23,000 people in the Hillsboro area, home to the Santa Clara, California-based company’s research and development programs and its biggest single location by worker count.