Radeon head Raja Koduri is leaving AMD

Radeon head Raja Koduri is leaving AMD

Raja Koduri has resigned from AMD, effective tomorrow. The Senior VP and Chief Architect of the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) originally announced that he was taking a sabbatical till December, but it looks like he’s now making it permanent.

This development comes on the heels of Intel's collaboration with AMD on mobile processors that will integrate Radeon graphics, so it's the second bit of surprising news to come out of the company in recent days.

Koduri broke the news of his departure via an internal memo, which was acquired by Hexus. You can read the letter in full here:

To my AMD family,

Forty is a significant number in history.  It is a number representing transition, testing and change. I have just spent forty days away from the office going through such a transition. It was an important time with my family, and it also offered me a rare space for reflection. During this time I have come to the extremely difficult conclusion that it is time for me to leave RTG and AMD.

I have no question in my mind that RTG, and AMD, are marching firmly in the right direction as high-performance computing becomes ever-more-important in every aspect of our lives.  I believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing with Vega, Navi and beyond, and I am incredibly proud of how far we have come and where we are going. The whole industry has stood up and taken notice of what we are doing. As I think about how computing will evolve, I feel more and more that I want to pursue my passion beyond hardware and explore driving broader solutions.

I want to thank Lisa and the AET for enabling me to pursue my passion during the last four years at AMD, and especially the last two years with RTG. Lisa has my utmost respect for exhibiting the courage to enable me with RTG, for believing in me and for going out of her way to support me.  I would also like to call out Mark Papermaster who brought me into AMD, for his huge passion for technology and for his relentless support through many difficult phases.  And of course, I want to thank each and every one of my direct staff and my indirect staff who have worked so hard with me to build what we have now got.  I am very proud of the strong leaders we have and I'm fully confident that they can execute on the compelling roadmap ahead.

I will continue to be an ardent fan and user of AMD technologies for both personal and professional use.

As I mentioned, leaving AMD and RTG has been an extremely difficult decision for me.  But I felt it is the right one for me personally at this point.  Time will tell.  I will be following with great interest the progress you will make over the next several years.

On a final note, I have asked a lot of you in the last two years.  You've always delivered.  You've made me successful both personally and professionally, for which I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  I have these final requests from you as I leave:

. Stay focused on the roadmap!
. Deliver on your commitments!
. Continue the culture of Passion, Persistence and Play!
. Make AMD proud!
. Make me proud!

Yours,
Raja

AMD has confirmed Koduri's resignation, but it also reiterated that his decision isn't going to affect RTG's product roadmap. Still, his absence will be sorely felt at the company, where he spearheaded AMD's entire graphics business and led the development of the Vega GPU architecture. 

In fact, RTG didn't even exist until Koduri formed it two years ago. 

AMD CEO Lisa Su has been running RTG during Koduri's sabbatical, and the company said that this will not change as AMD searches for a replacement. In the meantime, rumors have already surfaced of Koduri's next move, with talk swirling about a possible move to rival chipmaker Intel. 

Source: Hexus