Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has stated that Intel’s foundry is still not viable for Qualcomm’s mobile chips.

“Intel is not an option today… We would like Intel to be an option,” he noted.

He went on to say Qualcomm, headquartered in California, will keep production at TSMC and Samsung for now, while remaining open to buying from the US-owned chipmaker.

This isn’t a loss of an existing customer for Intel so much as a prospect that never converted.

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Back in 2021, Intel touted Qualcomm as a future Intel Foundry Services customer “in the coming years,” but no products, volumes, or timelines were attached.

Four years later, Amon’s on-the-record comment confirms that there are still no Qualcomm programs on Intel silicon and little likelihood of that situation changing in the near future.

From Qualcomm’s perspective, the issue is simple.

Phone-class and thin-and-light chips live or die on power efficiency and thermals.

TSMC’s current nodes already meet Qualcomm’s targets, and Intel hasn’t proven comparable efficiency at scale.

Qualcomm also ships in huge volumes and needs a manufacturing process that’s already battle-tested, with the right ecosystem of IP, packaging and tools tuned for mobile.

Moving critical products to a still-maturing process would add risk without a clear payoff.

Amon has left the door open. But only if Intel proves competitive efficiency at volume.

In the meantime, Qualcomm is pushing beyond phones into autos and connected devices.

That includes a new self-driving product headed to BMW’s iX3 and longer-term revenue ambitions in automotive and IoT.