Lisa Su

Lisa Su is acutely aware that technology is all about making the right bets. In her 10 years at the helm of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), she has steered one of Silicon Valley’s greatest turnarounds by focusing on its strengths and strategic dealmaking. When she took over at the company in 2014, its share price was languishing around $3. By leaning into making central processing units (CPUs) for laptops and PCs, and graphics processors, used in gaming consoles and PCs, Su brought AMD onto more stable footing, strengthening tactical partnerships with companies including Sony and Microsoft. In recent years, AMD has closed the $49 billion purchase of competitor Xilinx—the largest semiconductor deal ever—as well as the $1.9 billion acquisition of data center networking company Pensando.

The company has since leaned as heavily into AI as its competitors. AMD’s current generation of AI chips, the MI300—launched in December 2023—is the company’s fastest ramping product ever, passing $1 billion in total sales in less than two quarters. The MI300X chip from the series rivals dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia’s H100, and Su has called it “the most advanced AI accelerator in the industry.” In June the company announced it would be rolling out a new portfolio of chips for AI computing, including the Ryzen AI 300 series processors, the Instinct MI325X accelerator, and the MI350 graphics processing unit series.

The excitement around AI and the rise of rival Nvidia to become one of the most valuable companies in the world, has prompted some, like hedge fund Elliott Management, to raise concerns that the technology is “overhyped” and even entering bubble territory. But Su dismisses this idea. “Every 10 years or so, we see a major arc in technology, whether it was the beginning of the internet, or the beginning of the PC, or the beginning of mobile phones, or the beginning of the cloud,” Su says. “I think AI is bigger than all of them, in terms of how it can really impact our daily lives, our productivity, our business, our research—and we’re at the very beginning of the cycle.”

AMD is continuing to expand its AI footprint through acquisitions, in August announcing it was buying AI and cloud computing data center equipment maker ZT Systems for nearly $5 billion. This steps up AMD’s rivalry with Nvidia, which has also bolstered its data center offerings over the past few years. In July, AMD said it was acquiring Europe’s largest AI lab, Silo AI, in a deal worth around $665 million. “We really believe in end-to-end AI in every aspect,” says Su. “AI is going to be throughout our entire product portfolio.”

That $3 share price? It’s now hovering around $130, giving AMD a market value of close to $230 billion. The company reported second quarter revenue of $5.8 billion, up 9% from the previous year. Clients include Google and Amazon Web Services.

AMD has faced some challenges. Earlier this year it was reported that its Instinct MI309 chip, which was tailored to be suitable to sell to the China market, failed to secure the greenlight from the U.S. Commerce Department to be exported because it was still too powerful to comply with regulations. “We certainly understand the need to protect national security from each country’s perspective,” Su says. “We want to ensure that we continue to be very cognizant of the export controls, but still view the rest of the world, especially as we think through all of the global users of semiconductors, including China, [as] important markets for us.”

Su sees little limit to the heights AI could climb to. In the next five years, she thinks AI will dramatically accelerate research and improve the quality of healthcare. In her own industry, it won’t be long, she says, until faster, more efficient chips themselves are designed with the help of AI.

Correction, Sept. 9

The original version of this story misstated the month that AMD's MI300 chips launched. They launched in December 2023, not in January 2024.

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