Full Name: Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su
Date of Birth: November 7, 1969
Place of Birth: Tainan, Taiwan
Citizenship: United States
Occupation: Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Education:
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B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Overview
Dr. Lisa Su is a Taiwanese-American business executive and electrical engineer best known for her transformational leadership at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), where she currently serves as Chair and CEO. Under her leadership, AMD has become a top performer in the semiconductor industry, reversing years of underperformance and emerging as a leading provider of high-performance computing and graphics technologies.
Early Life and Education
Born in Tainan, Taiwan, Lisa Su immigrated to the United States at the age of three. She was raised in Queens, New York. Su demonstrated an early aptitude for math and science, fixing electronics at home by the age of 10 and expressing interest in engineering careers by her teens.
She attended the Bronx High School of Science and later enrolled at MIT, where she earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering. Her doctoral research focused on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology and device modeling, particularly for semiconductors.
Early Career
Su began her professional career at Texas Instruments in 1994 as a member of the technical staff in the Semiconductor Process and Device Center. She then joined IBM in 1995, where she worked for over a decade in various technical and executive roles. At IBM, she led the development of the copper interconnect technology used in modern microprocessors and served as Vice President of IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center.
In 2007, Su joined Freescale Semiconductor as Chief Technology Officer, where she helped transition the company to a publicly traded enterprise and led global R&D.
AMD Leadership
Joining AMD
Dr. Su joined AMD in 2012 as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Business Units. She played a key role in developing AMD’s product strategy and execution across its business lines, including CPU and GPU architectures.
Becoming CEO
In October 2014, she was named President and CEO of AMD, succeeding Rory Read. At the time, AMD was struggling with declining revenue, intense competition from Intel and NVIDIA, and a dwindling market share.
Strategic Turnaround
Under Su’s leadership, AMD underwent a significant transformation:
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Zen Architecture: She spearheaded the development of the Zen CPU microarchitecture, which culminated in the 2017 release of the Ryzen line of processors. This architecture helped AMD regain competitiveness in both desktop and data center markets.
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EPYC Processors: Su guided AMD’s reentry into the server market with the EPYC line of high-performance CPUs, challenging Intel’s longstanding dominance.
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Radeon GPU Roadmap: She also drove improvements to AMD’s Radeon graphics technology, leveraging both gaming and professional GPU markets.
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Acquisition of Xilinx (2022): Su led AMD’s $35 billion acquisition of FPGA leader Xilinx, greatly expanding AMD’s portfolio into adaptive computing.
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AI and HPC Growth: Under her vision, AMD has invested heavily in AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and custom silicon (e.g., for Microsoft, Sony, Meta).
Achievements and Recognition
Dr. Su has received numerous accolades, including:
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Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business (multiple years)
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Barron’s World’s Best CEOs
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IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2021) for leadership in microelectronics
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TIME’s 100 Most Influential People (2020)
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Election to the National Academy of Engineering (2018)
Leadership Philosophy
Lisa Su is widely respected for her technical acumen, strategic clarity, and results-driven leadership. She emphasizes engineering excellence, data-informed decisions, and disciplined execution. Her inclusive and collaborative approach has helped AMD attract top talent and build lasting partnerships.
Personal Life
Dr. Su is known for her modest and focused demeanor. Though private about her personal life, she has spoken publicly about the importance of STEM education, mentorship, and encouraging women to enter engineering and leadership roles.
She serves on the boards of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Cisco Systems, and she remains actively engaged in promoting innovation in technology.
Legacy
Dr. Lisa Su is regarded as one of the most effective leaders in the semiconductor industry. Her successful turnaround of AMD is considered a textbook case of strategic revitalization, making her a role model for engineers, executives, and aspiring leaders worldwide.
Notable Quotes
🧠 On Moore’s Law and Semiconductor Scaling
“Moore’s Law is alive and well — not because we’re shrinking transistors, but because we’re redesigning everything else.”
“The number of transistors per design continues to rise exponentially. The tools must keep up.”
“We’ve passed the point where transistor cost is dropping, but we’re not done innovating.”
“Complexity will always increase. It’s our job to make design feasible despite that.”
🧪 On EDA and Design Automation
“EDA is the unsung hero of the semiconductor industry.”
“You can’t build a trillion-transistor chip without automation.”
“Verification is now the most expensive and time-consuming part of design. And it’s only growing.”
“Design tools must be intelligent, not just faster.”
— On the importance of AI in EDA tool evolution.
🔁 On IP Reuse and System Design
“System design today is not about reinventing everything. It’s about reuse, integration, and optimization.”
“Design productivity now depends on how well you manage complexity, not just how fast your tools run.”
“The chip is no longer the product — it’s part of a much larger system.”
📈 On Industry Trends and Outlook
“The future is system-driven design — from architectural intent down to the silicon implementation.”
“We will see more design starts in the next decade than in the past thirty years combined.”
— Predicting a surge in domain-specific chips and edge AI architectures.
“The rise of chiplets and 3D integration will be the biggest change in semiconductor design since standard cells.”
🧑🏫 On Career and Leadership
“Leadership in technology is about staying curious. If you stop learning, you fall behind.”
“Mentorship and collaboration are the real multipliers of innovation.”
“The best ideas don’t come from the top. They come from everywhere — you just have to listen.”
📘 On Communication and Influence
Dr. Rhines is also known for his highly visual keynote presentations, rich in data-driven trend analysis, often quoting from historical industry metrics, including:
“History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme — especially in semiconductors.”
Would you like a timeline of Walden Rhines’ career, or quote cards with themes like EDA, Moore’s Law, or Chiplet Design?
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Here is a curated list of notable quotes by Dr. Lisa Su, the Chair and CEO of AMD, and one of the most respected and influential leaders in the semiconductor industry. Her quotes reflect deep insight on technology leadership, turnarounds, execution, and the future of high-performance computing.
On Technology and Innovation
“High-performance computing is the most important technology that is shaping the future.”
“Our vision is to push the envelope in high-performance and adaptive computing.”
“Innovation is not just about ideas — it’s about execution, iteration, and perseverance.”
“Technology leadership is never permanent. You earn it every day.”
— Reflecting AMD’s commitment to staying competitive with Intel, Nvidia, and Apple.
On AMD’s Turnaround and Culture
“There’s nothing like a good crisis to bring people together.”
— On AMD’s dramatic recovery from near-bankruptcy in the early 2010s.
“The most important thing is to believe that we can win — and to do the hard work to make it happen.”
“We changed the culture of AMD to focus on making big bets — and delivering.”
“You have to focus on what you can control: the technology, the execution, and the people.”
On Chiplets and Next-Gen Architectures
“Chiplet architectures give us the flexibility and scalability we need to lead in computing.”
“Moore’s Law is slowing, but innovation is not.”
— Emphasizing design innovation over raw transistor scaling.
“The future of computing is heterogeneous — CPUs, GPUs, accelerators, working together.”
On AI and the Future of Computing
“AI is transforming every industry, and computing is at the center of that transformation.”
“We are just at the beginning of what AI can do — and AMD is going to be a big part of that story.”
— On AMD’s role in the AI race with Nvidia and Intel.
On Leadership and Diversity
“Leadership is about setting a clear vision and empowering others to achieve it.”
“I believe in surrounding myself with people who are smarter than me — and listening to them.”
“Being a woman in tech is challenging, but I don’t let it define me. I let my work define me.”
“You don’t have to be loud to be a strong leader — you just have to be clear and consistent.”
On Strategy and Focus
“Pick a few things, and do them really, really well.”
— Lisa Su’s philosophy of focused execution over broad, unfocused ambition.
“We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re trying to be the best in what we do.”
On Resilience
“Never underestimate what a small team with a big dream can do.”
“The road to success is never a straight line. You just have to keep going.”
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