NVIDIA’s Mobile Lead Michael Rayfield Departs from the Company

In our fast-paced technological world, it’s not uncommon to see people jump from one company to the next to take on new challenges. But when an executive leaves their role representing one of the company’s more important products, it sure does get the speculation train moving. The latest case is Michael Rayfield, NVIDIA’s (now previous) GM of the Mobile Business Unit – aka: the man who lead Tegra on its journey up to this point.

Rayfield actually left last month, on August 24, so for it to become known long after is rather surprising. It’s been said that he left to go work with another firm, but where, we don’t know. It’s not unusual to see any project head leap to a direct competitor, so it wouldn’t be surprising to me if he happens to be at AMD or ARM. 

I met Michael way back in the summer of 2008, just after NVIDIA announced its first Tegra chip. Looking back at an article I posted afterwards, it’s interesting to see how Tegra has progressed since then, for the better. In a short four years, Tegra has gone from being just announced to being a much sought-after chip in the mobile space – though I am sure its current success isn’t quite where NVIDIA wants it to be.

Whether NVIDIA’s challenge just became greater with Rayfield’s departure remains yet to be seen.

Update: Our friends over at BSN* have said that Rayfield has moved to Micron.