Lisa Su

Lisa Su was born in 1969 in Tainan, Taiwan, and immigrated to the United States with her family at age three. She grew up in New York City and showed an early aptitude for math and science. She earned her bachelor's, master's, and PhD in electrical engineering from MIT, where her doctoral research focused on semiconductor device physics. Su spent over a decade at IBM, where she held key roles in semiconductor R&D, including leading the development of silicon-on-insulator technology. She then served as CTO at Freescale Semiconductor and SVP at AMD's competitor before being named AMD CEO in October 2014. At the time, AMD's stock was trading below $2, the company was hemorrhaging market share, and many analysts predicted its demise. Su's turnaround strategy was methodical and bold. She bet the company on the Zen microarchitecture for CPUs and the RDNA architecture for GPUs. The first-generation Ryzen processors in 2017 marked AMD's return to competitiveness. She then executed the $49 billion acquisition of Xilinx in 2022, the largest semiconductor deal in history, adding programmable chips to AMD's portfolio. Under her leadership, AMD's market capitalization grew from under $2 billion to over $200 billion. Su is known for her engineering-first leadership style — she deeply understands chip design and manufacturing tradeoffs. She is methodical, data-driven, and relentless in execution. Her ability to attract top engineering talent back to AMD and her long-term product roadmap discipline have been critical to the company's revival. She is widely regarded as one of the most effective CEOs in the semiconductor industry.