May 13 (Reuters) - The volume of processors Intel ( INTC )

is set to produce for external customers using its

upcoming manufacturing technology is currently "not

significant", finance chief David Zinsner said on Tuesday.

Committed volumes, or the amount of external customers'

chips set to be produced by Intel ( INTC ) using upcoming manufacturing

tech, is presently not significant, Zinsner said at J.P.

Morgan's Global Technology, Media and Communications conference

being held in Boston, Massachusetts.

Santa Clara, California-based Intel ( INTC ) is striving to become a

contract manufacturer of chips, but has struggled to progress

with its 18A and latest 14A chip manufacturing technologies.

However, last month the company said several customers

planned to build test chips for the forthcoming process.

"We get test chips, and then some customers fall out of the

test chips... So committed volume is not significant right now,

for sure," Zinsner said.

AI chip front-runner Nvidia ( NVDA ) and custom chipmaker

Broadcom ( AVGO ) are running manufacturing tests with Intel ( INTC ),

Reuters reported in March.

The contract manufacturing unit, called foundry, is on track

to break-even sometime in 2027 and would require external

customers to generate low to mid-single digit billions in

revenue to achieve that, Zinsner added.

The foundry unit reported $4.7 billion in sales in the March

quarter, up 7% from the year-ago period. However, chips

manufactured for the company's own products unit make up a large

chunk of these sales.

New CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who is tasked with undoing years of

missteps at the chipmaker, has retained Intel's ( INTC ) practice of

manufacturing its own chips and attempting to produce processors

for others.

"It's a fair assessment that Lip-Bu isn't thinking about

massive changes," Zinsner said during the call.

So far, Tan has flattened the organization and centered his

strategy around streamlining by divesting non-core assets like

some of its Altera stake.