Raja Koduri leaves Intel to start his own generative AI startup after five years trying to compete with Nvidia and AMD in discrete graphics for gamers and beyond.
Intel scooped him up from AMD in 2017 – and it was a massive acquisition! Not only had Intel hired a top architect who had recently gone on a break, but they’d also revealed that they wanted to make graphics cards after a 20 year hiatus. Koduri had previously been recruited for ambitious projects – Apple snapped him up from AMD right before an amazing range of graphic advancements, and then he consequently returned to AMD in 2013.
Intel has yet to make waves in the discrete graphics card market since Raja Koduri’s exit. Their initial attempts were never available for purchase, and when their first commercial gaming GPUs arrived in 2022, we noted driver issues and a missing feature, though they did perform well at 1080p owing to competitive pricing. Intel set expectations low and this would prove to be a wise decision. Going forward, there’s still potential for improvement as the company has a long GPU roadmap – it took Nvidia and AMD both several years before they reached that point.
Koduri led Intel’s “accelerated computing” initiatives, including a crypto chip, when he left.
According to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s tweet, the company will create “generative AI software for gaming, media, and entertainment.”
