Intel AI Data Center VP Leaves for AMD
Intel’s vice president of data center AI product management, Saurabh Kulkarni, has departed from the company. This move, first reported by CRN and later confirmed by Intel, follows another recent exit of a senior fellow and Xeon chief architect from Intel this year.
Career Shift and New Role
Kulkarni joined Intel in August 2023 and is now moving to AMD. According to his LinkedIn profile, he played a crucial role in defining reference architectures for Ethernet-based scale-up and scale-out systems with Gaudi accelerators and led Intel's rackscale systems initiative for data center AI.
"He spearheaded reference architecture definition for Ethernet-based scale-up and scale-out systems with Gaudi accelerators… [and] championed the rackscale systems initiative for data center scale AI systems at Intel."
Responsibilities at Intel
In his latest position, Kulkarni focused on data center AI products, driving the silicon photonics strategy for GPU interconnects to enhance scalability and performance for next-generation data center systems.
"Driving silicon photonics strategy for GPU interconnect to improve scalability and performance for next-generation data center scale systems."
Professional Background
- This was Kulkarni's second term at Intel, having previously worked there for 13 years as a CPU senior design engineer and senior security and hardware architect.
- He left Intel earlier for a role at Microsoft and also held positions at Oracle and Graphcore.
Summary: Saurabh Kulkarni’s move from Intel to AMD highlights ongoing executive shifts in the semiconductor industry, especially in AI-focused data center roles.