Lisa Su

Lisa Su
Born	Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	Tainan, Taiwan
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive, electrical engineer, computer scientist
Title	Chair and CEO of AMD (2014–present)
Known for	Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); semiconductor design; silicon-on-insulator technology
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, PhD)
Spouse(s)	Daniel Lin
Awards	IEEE Fellow (2009), IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2021)
Website	[https://www.amd.com/en-us/who-we-are/corporate-information/leadership/dr-lisa-su Official site]

Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su (Template:Zh; born 1969) is an American business executive, electrical engineer, and computer scientist who serves as the chair, president, and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a global semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Born in Tainan, Taiwan, Su immigrated to the United States as a young child and went on to earn three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a doctorate in electrical engineering. Before joining AMD, she held engineering and management positions at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor, where she contributed to advances in semiconductor manufacturing, including the development of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Su was appointed president and CEO of AMD in October 2014 and became chair of the board in 2022. During her tenure, AMD's market capitalization has grown from approximately $3 billion to more than $200 billion, and the company overtook Intel in market capitalization for the first time. Su has received numerous honors, including being named Time magazine's CEO of the Year and becoming the first woman to receive the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal. In November 2025, she was elected chair of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Early Life

Lisa Su was born in 1969 in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan. She immigrated to the United States with her family when she was a young child. Her father was a statistician and her mother an accountant, and both parents placed a strong emphasis on education. Su has stated that she developed an early interest in math and science, and her parents encouraged her technical curiosity from a young age.

Su is a cousin of Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, another major semiconductor company. Both executives are of Taiwanese descent and have risen to prominence in the global technology industry.

Growing up in the United States, Su gravitated toward engineering and the sciences. She has recalled that by the time she was a teenager, she was already taking apart and reassembling electronic devices, an early indication of the technical aptitude that would define her career. Her family's move to the United States positioned her to pursue higher education at some of the country's leading technical institutions, and she enrolled at MIT as an undergraduate.

Education

Su attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1990, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1991, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in electrical engineering in 1994. Her doctoral dissertation, titled Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs, focused on advanced semiconductor fabrication techniques and was completed under the guidance of MIT faculty in the university's electrical engineering department.

Su's academic work at MIT laid the foundation for her expertise in silicon-on-insulator technology, a semiconductor manufacturing process that improves chip performance and reduces power consumption. Her research during this period would prove influential in her subsequent career in the semiconductor industry. In December 2025, MIT announced that Su had been selected to deliver the university's 2026 Commencement address, recognizing her as "a leading executive in the semiconductor industry."

Career

Early Career: Texas Instruments and IBM

After completing her PhD at MIT in 1994, Su joined Texas Instruments, where she worked as a member of the technical staff. Her early career focused on semiconductor device physics and process technology development.

Su subsequently moved to IBM, where she spent over a decade in increasingly senior engineering and management roles. At IBM, she served as vice president of the Semiconductor Research and Development Center, where she oversaw work on semiconductor process technologies. During her time at IBM, Su became known for her contributions to the development of silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips. Her technical expertise and leadership capabilities drew recognition within the industry.

In 2002, MIT Technology Review named Su to its list of the top 100 young innovators under the age of 35, an annual recognition of emerging leaders in technology and science. The recognition highlighted her work on SOI technologies and her potential as an engineering leader. A Technology Review profile described her contributions to translating advanced semiconductor research into practical manufacturing processes.

Freescale Semiconductor

Su left IBM to join Freescale Semiconductor, formerly the semiconductor division of Motorola, where she served as senior vice president and general manager of the company's networking and multimedia group. At Freescale, she oversaw the development and strategy for embedded communications and applications processors. Her role at Freescale further expanded her experience in managing large-scale semiconductor business units and prepared her for senior leadership positions in the industry.

AMD: Rise to CEO

Su joined Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in January 2012 as senior vice president and general manager of the company's global business units. In this role, she was responsible for driving end-to-end business execution across AMD's product portfolio. She was subsequently promoted to chief operating officer (COO), where she took on responsibility for the integration of AMD's business units and the development of the company's long-term corporate strategy.

On October 8, 2014, AMD announced that Su had been appointed president and chief executive officer, succeeding Rory Read. She became the first woman to lead a major semiconductor company as CEO. At the time of her appointment, AMD was facing significant financial challenges, with declining revenue and questions about the company's ability to compete effectively against larger rivals such as Intel and Nvidia.

In a letter to employees upon taking the role, Su outlined her vision for AMD's future, emphasizing the need to deliver great products, deepen customer relationships, and simplify the company's operations.

Strategic Turnaround at AMD

Under Su's leadership, AMD underwent a significant strategic transformation. She refocused the company's product roadmap on high-performance computing, prioritizing the development of competitive processor architectures for the PC, data center, and gaming markets. Su oversaw the launch of AMD's Zen processor architecture, which marked a major leap in performance for AMD's Ryzen consumer processors and EPYC server processors. These products enabled AMD to regain market share against Intel in both the consumer and enterprise segments.

Su also directed AMD's strategy in the graphics processor market, where the company competes with Nvidia. Under her stewardship, AMD expanded its GPU offerings and pursued opportunities in gaming consoles, securing design wins with major console manufacturers including Sony and Microsoft for the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.

A central element of Su's strategy has been positioning AMD as a major player in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) and data center markets. In early 2026, Su described AI demand as "on fire" and characterized the year as an "inflection year" for AMD's AI business. Speaking to CNBC, Su defended AMD's results and outlook, stating that "AI is accelerating at a pace" that requires continued investment and product development.

In an interview with CNBC in January 2026, Su also addressed the impact of AI on the workforce, stating that AI had not slowed the pace of hiring at AMD but was changing the types of roles being filled.

Su has emphasized AMD's enterprise-focused strategy in public communications. In early 2026, she indicated that AMD's primary focus would remain on the enterprise and data center segments even as the consumer PC market faced uncertainty.

During Su's tenure, AMD's market capitalization grew from approximately $3 billion at the time of her appointment in 2014 to more than $200 billion, and AMD surpassed Intel in market capitalization for the first time in the company's history.

Industry Leadership

Beyond her role at AMD, Su has held several positions in industry organizations and corporate governance. She previously served on the board of directors of Cisco Systems. She has been a member of The Business Council, a group of prominent American business leaders.

In November 2025, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that Su had been elected chair of the organization. The SIA represents the U.S. semiconductor industry in matters of trade policy, technology, and workforce development. Su's election to the chair position reflected her standing as one of the most prominent executives in the global semiconductor sector.

In February 2026, Purdue University announced that Su would headline a Presidential Lecture on the topic of what will power the AI era, joining Purdue President Mung Chiang for the event on March 2, 2026.

Personal Life

Su is married to Daniel Lin. She resides in the United States and holds American citizenship, having immigrated from Taiwan as a young child.

Su's cousin is Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, one of AMD's primary competitors in the GPU and AI accelerator markets. The familial connection between the leaders of two of the world's largest semiconductor companies has drawn public attention and media commentary, though both executives have generally maintained that their professional roles are separate from their family relationship.

Su has spoken publicly about the importance of education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and has emphasized the value of encouraging young people — particularly women — to pursue careers in engineering. Her selection to deliver MIT's 2026 Commencement address was noted as a recognition of both her professional accomplishments and her role as a prominent figure in the technology industry.

Recognition

Su has received a substantial number of awards and honors throughout her career, reflecting her contributions to the semiconductor industry and her leadership at AMD.

In 2002, she was named to MIT Technology Review's list of the top 100 young innovators under the age of 35 (TR35) for her work on semiconductor technologies.

In 2014, EE Times named Su its Executive of the Year, coinciding with her appointment as CEO of AMD. That same year, Time magazine named her CEO of the Year, making her the first woman to receive the designation. She received the honor a second time in 2024.

In 2016, Su was recognized as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She was also recognized by the Top 50 Tech Visionaries list in both 2016 and 2017.

In 2017, Fortune named Su one of the World's Greatest Leaders. Fortune also recognized her as number six on its 2018 Businessperson of the Year list.

Su was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018, one of the highest professional honors for an engineer in the United States.

She was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2009. In 2021, she became the first woman to receive the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, one of the organization's most prestigious awards, which recognizes exceptional contributions to the microelectronics industry.

In 2024, Su was selected as a Fellow of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan. In 2025, Forbes named her the tenth most powerful woman in the world. Also in 2025, Time magazine recognized her as one of the "Architects of AI" as part of its Person of the Year selection.

The Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce has also honored Su for her contributions to the technology industry and the Asian American business community.

Legacy

Lisa Su's tenure at AMD represents one of the most significant corporate turnarounds in the history of the semiconductor industry. When she became CEO in October 2014, AMD was a struggling company with declining revenue, limited competitive products, and a market capitalization of roughly $3 billion. Under her leadership, the company developed competitive processor architectures that challenged Intel's long-standing dominance in the x86 CPU market, expanded its presence in the data center and AI accelerator markets, and grew its market capitalization to more than $200 billion.

Su's background as an electrical engineer and semiconductor researcher has been frequently cited as a distinguishing characteristic of her leadership style. Unlike many CEOs of technology companies who come from finance or business management backgrounds, Su's career was built on deep technical expertise in semiconductor design and manufacturing. Her appointment was noted at the time as a shift from AMD's previous CEO, who had come from a financial engineering background, to a leader with hands-on semiconductor engineering experience.

Her election as chair of the Semiconductor Industry Association in November 2025 further cemented her position as one of the most influential figures in the global semiconductor ecosystem. Her selection by MIT to deliver the 2026 Commencement address reflected the university's recognition of her accomplishments as one of its most notable alumni.

As one of the few women to lead a major global technology company, Su's career has also been cited in discussions about gender representation in the technology and engineering sectors. Her status as the first woman to receive both the Time CEO of the Year designation and the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal has been noted as a marker of progress in an industry that has historically been dominated by men.