Intel has announced that it has opened up its best-in-class 22nm FinFET process to numerous, as-yet-unnamed third parties. In effect, Intel is now acting as a built-to-order foundry, much like TSMC, GlobalFoundries, IBM, and Samsung.

Don’t expect the next big AMD, Nvidia, or Qualcomm chip to be produced by Intel, though: So far, the only partners that Intel has announced are Achronix and Tabula, two small FPGA developers. FPGAs don’t threaten Intel at all, and in all likelihood it is using these small-timers to iron out the bugs in its foundry process; it’s one thing to build your own chips, but something else entirely to let someone else play in your back garden. TSMC has years of experience when it comes to contract manufacturing, and thus a proven work flow. Intel is probably years away from offering a similar service — and even then, it’s unlikely that Intel would even want to move into the foundry business.

Unlike Samsung, which has moved into the foundry business over the last few years, most notably producing Apple’s A4 and A5 chips, Intel doesn’t need the extra money or utilization that comes from being a foundry. While Samsung needed to squeeze some more money out of its semiconductor business, Intel is wildly profitable because of its industry-leading fabs. In this case, sharing the love would be a bad idea.

What is Intel planning, then? We think the most likely explanation is that Intel wants to take a better look at some of the products being produced by fabless companies, such as Qualcomm or Texas Instruments, who are currently using foundries like TSMC. By wooing these companies over to its 22nm process, Intel would be in prime position to pick out technologies that it wants to license and integrate into its own chips. Then, if the new tech turns out to be successful enough, Intel could even buy those companies out.

The other option is that Intel might be looking to boost the performance of its upcoming smartphone- and tablet-oriented Medfield platform. Medfield is highly integrated, but it still relies on at least two third-party chips: a power management IC, and a radio chip. Imagine if Intel partners with Qualcomm or Broadcom to make a 22nm LTE/HSPA+/CDMA radio chip for the Medfield-powered Motorola smartphone, due to be unveiled next week at Mobile World Congress; Intel would suddenly have a mobile platform with the cheapest and most power-efficient cellular radio on the market.