Kumar, a 28-year AMD veteran, had been standing in as CFO since AMD announced the departure of Thomas Siefert. Seifert was popular with Wall Street so Kumar has some big shoes to fill. Since 2001, Kumar was corporate controller at AMD and will need some sharp thinking over the next few months, The company has been hit by a slump in demand thanks to the economic downturn.

AMD, one of Silicon Valley's oldest chipmakers, has been laying off engineers while looking for new markets for its chips as it faces dwindling cash reserves. Executives have been fleeing the company of late.