News Intel Poaches Yet Another AMD GPU Executive: Ali Ibrahim

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I don't want to say it's a bad thing when you lose executives to your competition. But it reflects the executives belief in the current trajectory of the company. This disappoints me as AMD has righted the ship and is dumping money back into R&D on all fronts. You would think the loss of executives would have stopped by now.

I have seen similar "wave" effects once one good engineer/programmer senior talent leaves a company. Others usually go with them.
 
digitalgriffin said:
I don't want to say it's a bad thing when you lose executives to your competition. But it reflects the executives belief in the current trajectory of the company. This disappoints me as AMD has righted the ship and is dumping money back into R&D on all fronts. You would think the loss of executives would have stopped by now.

I have seen similar "wave" effects once one good engineer/programmer senior talent leaves a company. Others usually go with them.
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Maybe, but it's mostly about where the money is. One of my professors in engineering said it's a bad idea to stay in the same company for a long time if you want good pay.
 
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MasterMadBones said:
Maybe, but it's mostly about where the money is. One of my professors in engineering said it's a bad idea to stay in the same company for a long time if you want good pay.
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I agree, and many articles state this. But that's for us Peons, rules for execs are different. If you as a fellow Peon see some of your best talent leave, the following goes through your head:

  1. Are they getting better pay? (Greener grass)
  2. Is the company treating us fairly (lack of pay raises or recognition/promotion)
  3. Is the company a sinking ship? Is my job at risk?
  4. How much harder is my job going to be if we lost key talent?
Executives are supposed to be the captains with the over all view of the ship. If you see them leave, it shakes your belief in #3. (Is the company ship sinking) As a corporate leader you need to shore up your employees faith in the direction of the company and how staying on will benefit them. This is one area organizational health initiatives fail to address.
 
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AMD graphics executives are going to be totally out of their element heading Intel's new GPU.
These are the people who thought old GCN designs should be constantly rebadged and resold for like 10 years until they were essentially noncompetative ... They would fit in much better at Intel's CPU division.
 
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I dunno . . if Intel really wants to get into the game, and says "We'll double your salary" - even if you're confident in AMD's future, that's kind of hard to say no to.

I mean, I'm not saying that's what Intel was doing, but if they're desperate, and in a hurry, they certainly have the wherewithal to throw a ton of money at the problem.
 
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Giroro said:
AMD graphics executives are going to be totally out of their element heading Intel's new GPU.
These are the people who thought old GCN designs should be constantly rebadged and resold for like 10 years until they were essentially noncompetative ... They would fit in much better at Intel's CPU division.
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The difference being that Intel did it out of complacency while AMD was simply out of money. They couldn't develop two new architectures at the same time, and when the decision to develop Zen was made, GCN was competitive enough to put a band-aid on AMD's massive losses at the time. It was also guaranteed to be in consoles for 7 years with minimal change.

digitalgriffin said:
Executives are supposed to be the captains with the over all view of the ship. If you see them leave, it shakes your belief in #3. (Is the company ship sinking) As a corporate leader you need to shore up your employees faith in the direction of the company and how staying on will benefit them. This is one area organizational health initiatives fail to address.
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There is another reason for this though. Although AMD is doing well and the outlook seems promising, AMD stock is massively overvalued. Considering most executives have a minority stock in the company they work for, they may feel like they will get more money out selling their stock now than in the future, leaving the company in the process.
 
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digitalgriffin said:
I don't want to say it's a bad thing when you lose executives to your competition. But it reflects the executives belief in the current trajectory of the company.
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Hogwash.

These guys have all been at AMD for a long time (except Keller, who wasn't even at AMD, when Intel hired him). They have a ton of vested stock options. There's really not a lot of upside for them staying at AMD.

People leave for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they're bored. Maybe they want new challenges or to work on something a little different. Maybe they're not seeing opportunities for advancement, or maybe they just want to diversify their portfolio. These past couple years, I'm sure they've been able to command top dollar from Intel. It's been a great time to switch.

digitalgriffin said:
This disappoints me as AMD has righted the ship and is dumping money back into R&D on all fronts. You would think the loss of executives would have stopped by now.
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It's not as if these guys have some kind of monopoly on all the talent. Their departures have doubtlessly been making room for a whole new generation to step up and make their own impact.

AMD has probably been able to attract a lot of top talent, lately. Especially at the lower levels of the organization. I wouldn't worry about their staffing situation.
 
digitalgriffin said:
If you see them leave, it shakes your belief in #3. (Is the company ship sinking)
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Rumor has it that Raja didn't leave of his own accord. Though he might've already sensed this and started lining up his Intel gig before he got pushed.

As for the other execs, most of them spent quite a long time there, by tech industry standards.

Besides, Intel doesn't have a very good reputation as an employer. If I were at AMD, I'd be sitting tight and vesting my options.
 
The impression I get is that Intel has a lot of money to throw around, and they're trying to make big inroads into the GPU space over the coming years, so they're willing to pay a lot for people with existing experience in the field. So that shouldn't really be indicative of the executives not having confidence in the company they work for, just that someone else is offering them more.

And for all we know, AMD might not be paying some of these guys more because they might not feel they are worth paying more. Their graphics architecture may be catching up with Nvidia's, but there's no telling whether these guys are responsible for that, or if they were more responsible for AMD falling a bit behind to begin with. AMD has released some competitive products in recent years, but they also sometimes do things that don't always make that much sense. So, it's possible that AMD might be happy to move others into these positions, or at least they might not consider it a substantial loss.
 
cryoburner said:
The impression I get is that Intel has a lot of money to throw around, and they're trying to make big inroads into the GPU space over the coming years, so they're willing to pay a lot for people with existing experience in the field. So that shouldn't really be indicative of the executives not having confidence in the company they work for, just that someone else is offering them more.

And for all we know, AMD might not be paying some of these guys more because they might not feel they are worth paying more. Their graphics architecture may be catching up with Nvidia's, but there's no telling whether these guys are responsible for that, or if they were more responsible for AMD falling a bit behind to begin with. AMD has released some competitive products in recent years, but they also sometimes do things that don't always make that much sense. So, it's possible that AMD might be happy to move others into these positions, or at least they might not consider it a substantial loss.
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Out of curiosity, would you guys jump google after their IPO? Why would you jump ship on a company that is on an upward trajectory? Growth means more opportunity.

I'm not saying there isn't a valid reason. But if does confound me a good reason why you would jump ship. Some things aren't about money.
 
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digitalgriffin said:
Why would you jump ship on a company that is on an upward trajectory? Growth means more opportunity.
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Because another company offering them more money and a higher position also means more opportunity, with perhaps a more guaranteed chance of panning out in the near-term?

While AMD is seeing good growth compared to what they were for a while there, it seems logical that Intel's dedicated GPU division will also be seeing large growth, since it's a big company moving into a field where they don't currently have much of an existing presence.

And in the case of this guy, would you rather be known as a "Senior Fellow, working on cloud and Xbox related projects", or as the "VP of Platform Architecture and Engineering of discrete GPUs department"?
 
cryoburner said:
Because another company offering them more money and a higher position also means more opportunity, with perhaps a more guaranteed chance of panning out in the near-term?

While AMD is seeing good growth compared to what they were for a while there, it seems logical that Intel's dedicated GPU division will also be seeing large growth, since it's a big company moving into a field where they don't currently have much of an existing presence.

And in the case of this guy, would you rather be known as a "Senior Fellow, working on cloud and Xbox related projects", or as the "VP of Platform Architecture and Engineering of discrete GPUs department"?
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It will be many years before Intel will establish itself. They haven't exactly been the bastion of hope when it comes to it's graphics department. And they tend to be schizophrenic with what projects they support, and then kill off or sell all the sudden with little to no warning. The later is especially unnerving.

I personally like stability. But I also like being at the helm of something great that is emerging. It means you have the hand in birthing something great. I would personally stick around to be a part of that growing success. But that's me. Money isn't everything when you can have a hand in something great. But that's me.
 
digitalgriffin said:
Out of curiosity, would you guys jump google after their IPO? Why would you jump ship on a company that is on an upward trajectory? Growth means more opportunity.

I'm not saying there isn't a valid reason. But if does confound me a good reason why you would jump ship. Some things aren't about money.
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Because this little AMD party is about to get upended by a runaway freight train.
 
King_V said:
That may be true. But, are these people at that level, and, don't even the wealthiest people in the world keep fighting to get even more?
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shrugs Maybe. Some make more through stocks, some make more through pay.

Ref to money/happiness curve: https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/14/money-can-buy-happiness-but-only-to-a-point.html

Anything above $150K/year and you hit the donut hole where you start losing retirement benefits. You don't truly make any more money till you get above $225k/year or so because of taxes, and loss of retirement benefits.

But once you reach a certain pay level, the company basically owns your life. They say "Go here or find a new job" If they want you to fly, you fly. If they want you to move, you move. It's not exactly an easy life. Your success is measured based on how you well you predicted ROI's. This is sales & productivity increases against project cost. Then you get the unenviable job of saying "1 out of 5 of your staff have to be let go to meet targets" Also you're away from your family a lot. For some people that works out well. For others, not so much.
 
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MasterMadBones said:
The difference being that Intel did it out of complacency while AMD was simply out of money. They couldn't develop two new architectures at the same time, and when the decision to develop Zen was made, GCN was competitive enough to put a band-aid on AMD's massive losses at the time. It was also guaranteed to be in consoles for 7 years with minimal change.


There is another reason for this though. Although AMD is doing well and the outlook seems promising, AMD stock is massively overvalued. Considering most executives have a minority stock in the company they work for, they may feel like they will get more money out selling their stock now than in the future, leaving the company in the process.
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Admin said:
AMD has seen lots of success in recent years, but quite a few of their staff are being hired by Intel.

Intel Poaches Yet Another AMD GPU Executive: Ali Ibrahim : Read more
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GREED!
 
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