Intel Hires Former AMD Radeon Chief, Raja Koduri, to Head Graphics Division

The Intel/AMD news just won’t stop this week. Raja Koduri has indeed left AMD—and he has indeed joined Intel. This was a fair bit of conjecture until now (we even mentioned it in our most recent HW News video, not knowing whether it would be confirmed or debunked), but Intel has released an official statement confirming the move, and the existence of their newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group, which Koduri will helm.

Raja Koduri is a prominent figurehead in the industry, especially as it relates to graphics, visuals, and GPU computing. He notably led AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group, and served as director of graphics for Apple. News of his move to Intel came during his sabbatical he announced back in September, under which he intended to spend time with his family after a grueling Vega launch. His experience and expertise will doubtless be invaluable as part of Intel’s strategy to aggressively expand their presence in the GPU market.

Koduri will begin work at Intel in December, presumably after his sabbatical. As for exactly what he’ll be doing, that’s a bit unclear at the moment. In announcing their Core and Visual Computing Group, Intel spoke in broad and vague terms:

“Billions of users today enjoy computing experiences powered by Intel’s leading cores and visual computing IP. Going forward under Koduri’s leadership, the company will unify and expand differentiated IP across computing, graphics, media, imaging and machine intelligence capabilities for the client and data center segments, artificial intelligence, and emerging opportunities like edge computing.”

It is apparent Intel has big ambitions for both integrated and high-end discrete graphics solutions; to what end Intel will be expanding, exactly, is hard to say. This news, in addition to their newly minted deal with AMD to bring a collaborative mobile chip to market, seems to signify that Intel is ready to claw some market share away from nVidia. As we move ever closer to the end of the year, 2018 is shaping up to be very interesting, especially in the realm of PC graphics.