AMD President Victor Peng retires — SVP of AI group Vamsi Boppana will lead AMD's AI business

This week, AMD announced that President Victor Peng will retire on August 30, 2024. Peng is responsible for AMD’s datacenter GPUs, programmable solutions (FPGAs and SoCs), and embedded solutions business. He will stay on in an advisory capacity until late August.

Victor Peng rejoined AMD in 2022 following the acquisition of Xilinx. His return was instrumental in successfully integrating and expanding AMD’s embedded business. Peng also spearheaded AMD’s AI strategy across the company. As part of the transition plan, Vamsi Boppana, Senior Vice President of the Artificial Intelligence Group, will take on more responsibilities, including overseeing the AMD Instinct data center AI and HPC accelerator business.

Boppana has been with Xilinx since 2008 and has held various technical and leadership roles, focusing on AI software, ecosystem development, and hardware roadmaps. Essentially, Boppana will be responsible for all of AMD’s AI and HPC efforts, which is good because the company will have one manager with all the reigns.

Salil Raje, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, will continue managing AMD’s embedded business. Boppana and Raje will now report directly to AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su, ensuring continuity and leadership within the company. However, Peng’s departure is a significant loss for AMD.

With over 40 years in the tech industry, Peng brought extensive experience in FPGAs, SoCs, GPUs, and high-performance CPUs. Before his tenure at AMD, Peng spent 14 years at Xilinx, serving as President and CEO from January 2018 to February 2022. His role involved significant contributions to developing 5G equipment and solutions for automotive solutions. Before becoming CEO, he held positions as Chief Operating Officer, EVP and GM of Products, and SVP of Programmable Platforms Development, overseeing various aspects of product development, marketing, and global operations.

Peng’s earlier career includes roles at AMD, where he worked on silicon engineering following the acquisition of ATI, and positions at Tzero Technologies, MIPS Technologies, SGI, and Digital Equipment Corporation. His extensive experience in engineering and leadership across multiple high-tech companies is precious.

“Victor re-joined AMD in 2022 following the acquisition of Xilinx and played an important role successfully integrating and scaling our embedded business and leading our cross-company AI strategy,” said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “Under his leadership, AMD became the industry’s #1 provider of FPGA and adaptive computing solutions. On behalf of the AMD Board, executive leadership team and the thousands of employees who have worked with him, I want to thank Victor for his outstanding leadership and wish him the best in his retirement.”

It is noteworthy that Peng is not the first top manager from AMD to retire in recent years. Rick Bergman, the head of the Computing and Graphics Group, retired last year.