Raja Koduri


Raja M. Koduri is a computer engineer and executive for computer graphics hardware. He is currently the chief architect and senior vice president of Intel's discrete graphics division. Before Intel, he worked as the senior vice president and chief architect of the Radeon Technologies Group, the graphics division at Intel's competitor AMD.

Career

Koduri joined S3 Graphics in 1996. He became the director of advanced technology development at ATI Technologies in 2001. Following Advanced Micro Devices's 2006 acquisition of ATI, he served as chief technology officer for graphics at AMD until 2009. He then went to Apple Inc., where he worked with graphics hardware, which allowed Apple to transition to high-resolution Retina displays for its Mac computers. He returned to AMD in 2013 as a vice president in Visual Computing, which includes both GPU hardware and software, unlike his pre-2009 role at AMD which only concerned GPU hardware. AMD reorganized its graphics division in 2015, promoting Koduri to the executive level by naming him senior vice president and chief architect of the newly formed Radeon Technologies Group. Under this role, Koduri reported directly to AMD CEO Lisa Su.
Koduri took a three-month break from his job at AMD in September 2017, with the intention to spend time with his family. He resigned from AMD on November 7. Two days later, he joined Intel, a competitor to AMD, as chief architect and senior vice president of the company's newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group. Matthew S. Smith of Digital Trends argued that this would feel like a stab in heart for fans of AMD, noting that Koduri was "loved for his confident yet easy-going demeanor" and had become the unofficial face for AMD's underdog image. In June 2018, Koduri announced Intel's plans to compete with AMD and Nvidia in discrete graphics processing units, with a planned launch of its first GPU in 2020. In a March 2019 interview with Barron's, Koduri mentioned Intel's people and resources as his main reason for leaving AMD, described how he successfully headhunted former AMD and Apple engineer Jim Keller for Intel, and said that his visual computing group at Intel has 4,500 people.
Koduri is an investor and advisor at Makuta VFX, an Indian visual effects company which he compared to Pixar.

Education

Koduri earned a bachelors degree in electronics and communications from Andhra University. Koduri holds a Master of Technology degree from IIT Kharagpur.