Intel AI Data Center VP Departs for AMD
Saurabh Kulkarni, Intel’s Vice President of Data Center AI Product Management, has left the company to join competitor AMD. This move was first reported by CRN and later confirmed by Intel. Kulkarni’s departure follows the loss of Intel’s second senior fellow and Xeon chief architect earlier this year.
Kulkarni's Role and Contributions at Intel
Kulkarni joined Intel in August 2023. His LinkedIn profile highlights his leadership in defining reference architectures for Ethernet-based scale-up and scale-out systems with Gaudi accelerators. He also played a key role in advancing Intel’s rackscale systems initiative focused on large-scale AI data center systems.
Kulkarni "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."
In his latest position, his responsibilities included driving the silicon photonics strategy for GPU interconnects, aiming to enhance scalability and performance for next-generation data center-scale systems.
Kulkarni's Career History
- His recent two-year stint at Intel was his second tenure at the company.
- Previously, he spent 13 years at Intel as a CPU senior design engineer and senior security and hardware architect.
- After his first time at Intel, he worked at Microsoft, Oracle, and Graphcore.
This transition to AMD marks another high-profile departure from Intel to a rival chipmaker, reflecting ongoing industry shifts.
Author’s summary: Saurabh Kulkarni’s move from Intel to AMD highlights competitive talent shifts in AI data center chip development amid Intel’s recent leadership changes.