AMD chief engineer jumps ship to Samsung

The latest AMD veteran to jump ship is Michael Goddard, who served as the company's Corporate VP of Product Design Engineering and Chief Engineer for client products. After working at the chip designer for 25 years, Goddard quietly left to take up a position as a VP and system architect at the South Korean electronics giant's facility in Austin, Texas.

AllThingsD reports Goddard was a deeply respected engineer at AMD, and that at least 26 executives of varying levels of seniority left the company in recent months.

During his years at AMD, Goddard (pictured), a deeply respected engineer at the company, worked closely in the late 1990s with Dirk Meyer, the AMD engineer who later served as its CEO from 2008 to 2011. He also spent some time with AMD’s design operations in India. People close to AMD were surprised by the move, and say its unlikely that Goddard was pushed out. Goddard couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, though he has been spotted at industry events in recent days quietly telling people he had started the new job at Samsung. An AMD spokesman confirmed Goddard’s departure, adding that the company is continuing to make strategic hires.

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In fairness, it hasn’t been all departures at AMD. In August, it hired Jim Keller, the former head chip designer at Apple. And last year it hired its CIO away from Hewlett-Packard.