Long Time AMD Veteran, Michael Goddard, Defects To Samsung

It's most certainly a holiday season, and a quiet one at that, but is it also a season of change? For one Michael Goddard, the answer is "yes." While that name may not be a household one, anyone who has followed AMD in recent decades would recognize it. But soon, it'll be a name that's associated with Samsung. Advanced Micro Devices is still struggling to seriously compete with Intel, and increasingly, outfits like Qualcomm, TI, and the multitude of chip makers that produce ARM processors. And with that has come job cuts in recent years, and perhaps a waning morale.

Goddard is unique because he has spent a whopping 25 years at AMD. That's a career no matter how you slice it, and an impressive feat this day and age. He had become corporate VP for product design engineering and chief engineer on client products at AMD, having been around since 1988. But now, he's shifting sides, defecting to Samsung as a Vice President and system architect at the company's chip-focused facility in Austin, Texas. You may have heard of this place before; several of the key components in Apple's iDevice family are built right there in the heart of the Lone Star State.


While at AMD, Goddard worked in the late 90s with Dirk Meyer, while also spending a bit of time with the company's design operations in India. Reportedly, Goddard stepped away on his own, with an AMD spokesperson confirming his departure but offering no reasoning beyond that. As for AMD's share price? A paltry $2.43, having dropped over 55% this year alone.