Intel hires AMD CEO Raja Koduri to make high-end GPUs

Raja Koduri, who announced his departure from AMD on Wednesday, will start working at Intel. He will start in December as chief architect and senior vice president of the new Core and Visual Computing Group. Intel says it wants to make high-end GPUs.

Intel writes in a press release about the appointment of Koduri and the establishment of the new business unit. Intel wants to strengthen its position in the GPU market by coming up with high-end discrete graphics solutions. Discrete graphics refer to a GPU that is separate from the processor. Intel also wants to improve its integrated GPUs.

Intel announced earlier this week that it is working with AMD on a laptop chip consisting of an Intel CPU and an AMD GPU with hbm2. This chip should be released in early 2018 and is intended for thin laptops. Koduri may be working on more such chips at Intel.

With its new Core and Visual Computing Group, Intel wants to jump into the market for GPUs in data centers and for applications such as artificial intelligence. Intel also mentions client computers. This refers to the consumer segment and could therefore indicate video cards for gamers. Intel has not yet announced concrete plans and the objectives of the new business unit are broadly formulated, so that all options seem to be open.

On Wednesday, AMD confirmed the departure of Raja Koduri. In September, it was announced that he was going on a three-month sabbatical. Intel writes that Koduri will start working on his new function in early December.

Raja Koduri spent the past four years at AMD, the last two of which as Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of the Radeon Technology Group. Between 2009 and 2013, Koduri worked at Apple on graphics chips, but between 2001 and 2009 he was also chief technical officer at AMD’s graphics arm.