Keith Witek is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Tenstorrent leading operations, legal, HR, Finance, facilities, compliance, licensing, and other functions. Prior to joining Tenstorrent, Keith led all aspects of Strategic Alliances for Google’s consumer electronics operations that encompassed Pixel, gChips, Fitbit, Nest, AR/VR, wearables, hearables, and other product lines. Keith worked at SiFive as the SVP of Corporate Development and General Counsel structuring innovative industry partnerships and global business models for RISC-V adoption.
Before joining SiFive, Keith was the Director of Technology Enablement and Associate General Counsel at Tesla driving R&D technology development and deployment at Tesla, including development of Tesla’s autopilot capabilities. Keith spent 13 years at AMD culminating as the Corporate VP of Strategy and Corporate Development where he was responsible for AMD Ventures, M&A, corporate strategy, corporate development, internal transformation projects, and strategic alliances.
Prior to joining AMD, Keith was a co-managing attorney for the Technology Transactions Group of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati located in Austin, Texas focusing on start-ups and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to working for WSGR, Keith was counsel for various divisions of Motorola Inc. and counsel for Metrowerks post its acquisition by Motorola. Before pivoting to a legal career at Motorola, Keith was an etch engineer in Motorola’s MOS 11 fab, an SoC designer for embedded microcontrollers for companies like BMW and Seagate, and worked in Motorola’s Advanced Product R&D Lab (APRDL) researching advanced semiconductor processes and devices.
In addition, Keith has a passion for entrepreneurship and sits on the board of Startingblock Madison which helps entrepreneurs build innovative companies in the Mid-West and turn their ideas into real businesses. Keith has been an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law where he taught a strategic IP and technology licensing course, and has taught IP and M&A paralegal course work at ACC. Keith has published several papers and spoken on various IP, business development, and contract related topics around the world. Keith is a co-author of an Internet and IP Law Treatise published by West Publishing in which Keith has written several chapters on IP creation, IP management, IP licensing, and technology transactions.
Keith is an inventor on over 30 issued US patents, and several foreign patents. Keith holds a BS in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas Austin.