NVIDIA sees departure of mobile business leader

Word has hit the wire that Mike Rayfield, general manager of NVIDIA's mobile business unit, resigned from the graphics firm to take up a position at another company. WSJ received confirmation from NVIDIA that Rayfield is gone, but wasn't able to dig up details regarding his new job.

Analysts cited by the paper claim Rayfield's departure is a bog loss for NVIDIA because he's been the one driving the company's mobile chip strategy. Curiously, the article also contains a comment from Patrick Moorhead, who was fired by AMD last year after 11 years of service and now heads analyst firm Moor Insights & Strategy.

“It’s a big loss for them,” said JoAnne Feeney, an analyst who follows Nvidia for Longbow Research, who said she had not heard of Rayfield’s departure. “He’s really been driving the strategy.”

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“Mike’s leaving on an uptick,” said Patrick Moorhead, a market researcher with Moor Insights and Strategy, who noted Nvidia was battling larger teams at rival companies. “He was successful there in what he was able to do, with the resources that he had.”