
Dynamic and innovative leader with a track record of building teams, creating solutions to hard problems and getting things done. A hands-on leader who executes and implements in addition to planning and managing. Some highlights of impact: - Leading Hardware team at OpenAI - Twice published in Nature on photonic AI compute chip and use of ML for chip design - Taped out world's first photonic compute chip capable of running full ML - NeurIPS poster on use of graph neural-networks to predict verification effectiveness - Nature-published research into using ML for chip design (macro placement) - The original ML Accelerator (Tensor Processing Unit) that re-ignited computer architecture innovation. - The first low-power Arm SoC for data center applications. - The Anton1 and Anton2 machines, which both won the Gordon Bell Prize for Computer Architecture. - Key technology development of Clock-Domain Crossing (CDC) verification methodology. - Mainstream adoption of formal verification for hardware design. - Industry adoption of Assertion-Based Verification for hardware design including SVA definition. - Co-founded EDA company bought by Mentor Graphics/Siemens - still available as part of Questa Suite. Specialties: ML system design and implementation including SoC and ASIC design, verification and implementation and full system management/execution. Special focus on - Advanced packaging - Heterogeneous integration - High speed, high bandwidth IO networking - Advanced memory With deep knowledge of computer architecture, ML acceleration, advanced chip design analysis techniques that include formal verification (model checking), assertion-based verification, coverage-driven verification and specialized methods such as clock-domain crossing analysis. I aim to build teams that efficiently build novel chips attacking the hardest problems with creativity and flair. Publications: bit.ly/RichardHoGoogleScholar As of March 2025 - 42 patents covering design automation, ML for chip design and photonics (see below). Work using ML for chip design published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03544-w
openai.com
goo.gle
stanford.edu
lightmatter.com
siemens.com
deshawresearch.com
Palo Alto, California, United States
Head of Hardware
OpenAI
• www.linkedin.com/company/openai
• Full-time
Nov 2023 - Present
San Francisco, California, United States
Senior Vice President, Silicon and Software Engineering
Lightmatter
• www.linkedin.com/company/lightmatter
• Full-time
Sep 2023 - Nov 2023
Mountain View, California, United States
VP, Hardware Engineering
Lightmatter
• www.linkedin.com/company/lightmatter
• Full-time
Aug 2022 - Sep 2023
Mountain View, California, United States
Sr. Director, Engineering
• www.linkedin.com/company/google
• Full-time
Apr 2022 - Aug 2022
Sunnyvale
Principal Engineer/Director
• www.linkedin.com/company/google
• Full-time
Apr 2018 - Apr 2022
Sr. Staff Engineer
• www.linkedin.com/company/google
• Full-time
Feb 2014 - Apr 2018
Director of Engineering, SoC
Calxeda, Inc.
May 2013 - Jan 2014
Sunnyvale, CA
Co-Chair, Unified Coverage Interoperability Standard
Accellera
Jun 2008 - Oct 2012
Co-Founder, Chief Architect and Vice President
0-In Design Automation
Jul 1996 - Sep 2004
San Jose, CA