Intel has announced a key customer win and changes to its foundry business as the beleaguered chipmaker looks to mount a turnaround.

In a blog post, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said the company would pause its chip fabrication projects in Poland and Germany by two years "based on anticipated market demand," and consider pulling back on its chip packaging and testing factory in Malaysia. Intel previously pledged to spend over $36.72 billion to build semiconductor factories in Magdeburg, Germany, $4.6 billion on a chip plant near the Polish city of Wroclaw, and $7 billion on its Malaysia footprint.

Relatedly, Intel is taking steps to transition its chip foundry division, Intel Foundry, to an independent subsidiary, Gelsinger said. Intel Foundry's leadership isn't changing and the subsidiary will remain within Intel, but Intel Foundry will also gain its own operating board including independent directors.

In a win for said foundry business, Gelsinger revealed that Intel has signed a deal with AWS to co-develop an AI chip using Intel's 18A chip manufacturing process. Intel has also agreed to produce a custom Xeon 6 processor for AWS, building on an existing partnership between the two companies.

"We have tripled our deal pipeline since the beginning of the year," Gelsinger said of Intel Foundry's business, describing the AWS deal as a "multi-year, multi-billion-dollar framework" that'll potentially involve additional chip designs. "This [...] demonstrates the continued progress we are making to build a world-class foundry business."

Intel's cost-cutting and dealmaking -- along with a newly-awarded $3.5 billion contract to build chips for the Pentagon -- sent the company's stock soaring over 6% at market close. It's a bright spot in Intel's otherwise grim fiscal year.

In Q1, Intel posted a $437 million net loss -- a loss that widened to $1.6 billion in Q2. Intel Foundry posted $5.3 billion in operating losses in H1, despite a slight year-over-year climb in revenue.

Intel also reportedly lost out on a major customer, Sony, after failing to come to a chip manufacturing agreement for Sony's upcoming PlayStation 6 console. A Sony tie-up would've contributed $30 billion to Intel's foundry business, according to Reuters.

This summer, Intel announced a $10 billion cost-reduction plan, which included laying off 15,000 staffers through separation and early retirement offerings. (Intel says it's more than halfway through the process and expects to wrap up by the end of the year.) The chipmaker has also reportedly considered selling its autonomous driving arm Mobileye and its enterprise networking division.