Following AMD’s hire of Jim Keller last year, who had been Apple’s chief chip design lead working on the A4, A5, and A6 chips for iOS devices for 4 years, the company has now poached Raja Koduri as well. Koduri has been Apple’s director of graphics chip architecture for the past four years, after Apple hired him from AMD.
CNET reports:
Advanced Micro Devices will soon announce it has hired a former Apple graphics chip designer to bolster its engineering leadership bench as it turns itself around, CNET has learned.
Raja Koduri, who most recently served as director of graphics architecture for Apple, will be rejoining AMD four years after leaving that company, people familiar with the hire told CNET. He will be taking on a role in AMD’s graphics business, though it wasn’t immediately clear to CNET what his title would be. AMD is expected to make the announcement next week.
Koduri’s reasons for going back to AMD are unclear – although it does seem that more Apple employees and executives have jumped ship in the past several months than is normal. AMD has reportedly been trying to hire Koduri back practically ever since he left AMD for Apple.
So, in short: Apple poached a key employee from AMD. Now AMD has poached that very same employee right back from Apple. Corporate ping-pong, anyone?
