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 Official site]

Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su (Template:Zh; born 1969) is an American business executive, computer scientist, and electrical engineer who serves as the chair, president, and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the American semiconductor company. 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 built a reputation for technical expertise in silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing and chip efficiency. Appointed CEO of AMD in October 2014, Su inherited a company struggling financially and led a strategic turnaround that saw its market capitalization grow from roughly $3 billion to more than $200 billion. She became the first woman named Time magazine's CEO of the Year and 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. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a young child, settling in the country where she would pursue her education and career. Su has described developing an early interest in math and science, and her parents — her father a statistician and her mother an accountant — encouraged her technical curiosity from a young age.

Growing up in the United States, Su demonstrated a strong aptitude for engineering and technology. She has spoken publicly about how her childhood experiences shaped her desire to understand how things work, an inclination that would eventually lead her to a career in the semiconductor industry. Su is a cousin of Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, another major American semiconductor company.

Su's formative years were marked by a disciplined focus on academics and an orientation toward problem-solving. Her early exposure to quantitative fields through her parents' professions, combined with the educational opportunities available in the United States, provided a foundation for her subsequent academic achievements at MIT and her career in semiconductor engineering.

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 in electrical engineering in 1991, and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering in 1994. Her doctoral thesis, titled Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs, focused on silicon-on-insulator technology, a semiconductor manufacturing technique that would become central to her early professional career.

Su completed all three degrees at MIT in a span of approximately four years, an accelerated pace that reflected her academic abilities and dedication. Her doctoral research contributed to the understanding of advanced semiconductor device physics and manufacturing processes, subjects that would define much of her subsequent work in the industry. In December 2025, MIT announced that Su would deliver the university's 2026 Commencement address, recognizing her as "a leading executive in the semiconductor industry."

Career

Early Career at Texas Instruments and IBM

After completing her PhD at MIT in 1994, Su began her career at Texas Instruments, where she worked as a member of the technical staff. She subsequently moved to IBM, where she spent over a decade in increasingly senior technical and management roles.

At IBM, Su became known for her work on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor manufacturing technologies. SOI technology involves building semiconductor devices on a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate rather than conventional silicon wafers, offering advantages in terms of chip speed and power consumption. Su's contributions in this area were recognized early; in 2002, the MIT Technology Review named her one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 for her work on SOI technologies.

Su rose to the position of vice president of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center, where she oversaw efforts to develop more efficient semiconductor chips. Her work at IBM focused on translating advanced research into commercially viable manufacturing processes, a skill that combined technical depth with business acumen. During her time at IBM, Su managed teams working on next-generation chip technologies and gained experience in leading large-scale semiconductor development programs.

Freescale Semiconductor

Su left IBM to join Freescale Semiconductor, the chip manufacturer that had been spun off from Motorola in 2004. At Freescale, she served as senior vice president and general manager of the company's networking and multimedia group, overseeing product strategy and engineering for key business segments. Her tenure at Freescale further developed her capabilities in general management and business operations, areas that would prove essential in her subsequent role as CEO of AMD.

AMD: Joining and 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. At the time, AMD was facing significant competitive and financial challenges, including declining market share in the personal computer processor market and increasing competition from Intel and ARM-based chip makers.

In her initial role at AMD, Su was responsible for driving strategy and execution across the company's product lines. She was later promoted to chief operating officer (COO), where she oversaw business strategy, sales, and engineering operations.

On October 8, 2014, AMD announced that Su had been appointed president and chief executive officer, succeeding Rory Read. The appointment made her the first woman to lead a major semiconductor firm as CEO. At the time of her appointment, AMD's stock was trading at low levels and the company's market capitalization stood at roughly $3 billion. The semiconductor industry and financial analysts viewed the CEO transition as a significant moment for AMD, given the company's ongoing financial difficulties.

Turnaround and Strategic Direction at AMD

Upon becoming CEO, Su outlined a strategic plan focused on developing high-performance computing products and diversifying AMD's customer base beyond the traditional PC market. She emphasized investment in new chip architectures and building stronger relationships with major technology companies.

Under Su's leadership, AMD launched the Zen microarchitecture for its Ryzen and EPYC processor lines, which represented a significant leap in performance and energy efficiency compared to the company's previous products. The Zen-based processors enabled AMD to regain competitiveness against Intel in both the consumer and server processor markets. AMD's data center business, built around the EPYC server processor line, became a major growth driver for the company.

Su also expanded AMD's presence in the gaming console market, securing design wins for custom chips powering the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox platforms. These semi-custom chip deals provided AMD with stable revenue streams and demonstrated the company's ability to deliver complex, integrated processor designs.

AMD's acquisition of Xilinx in 2022 further expanded the company's product portfolio into field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and adaptive computing, areas with applications in data centers, communications infrastructure, and automotive systems. The deal, valued at approximately $49 billion, was one of the largest acquisitions in the semiconductor industry's history and reflected Su's strategy of building a diversified computing company.

In 2022, Su was also named chair of AMD's board of directors, adding the chairmanship to her existing roles as president and CEO.

Artificial Intelligence Strategy

In the mid-2020s, Su positioned AMD as a competitor in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) chip market, challenging Nvidia's dominance in AI accelerator hardware. AMD developed its Instinct series of data center GPUs targeting AI training and inference workloads.

In early 2026, Su publicly addressed demand for AMD's AI products, stating that "AI is accelerating at a pace" that was driving significant business opportunities for the company. She described demand for AMD's chips as "on fire" and characterized the period as an "inflection year" for the company's AI business.

In January 2026, Su commented on the relationship between AI and employment, stating that AI had not slowed the pace of hiring at AMD, while acknowledging that the technology was changing the types of roles being filled. Her enterprise-focused strategy included an emphasis on delivering AI solutions across different computing environments, reflecting an approach that the company described as offering "the right tool for the right job."

Su also indicated that AMD's strategic focus would emphasize the enterprise segment, as the traditional client PC market faced uncertainty.

Industry Leadership Roles

Beyond her role at AMD, Su has served in a number of industry leadership positions. She previously served on the board of directors of Cisco Systems. She is a member of The Business Council.

In November 2025, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that Su had been elected as chair of the organization's board of directors. The SIA represents the U.S. semiconductor industry and advocates for policies related to trade, technology, workforce development, and research funding.

Su was also selected to deliver MIT's 2026 Commencement address, an honor the university bestowed in recognition of her leadership in the semiconductor industry. In February 2026, Purdue University announced that Su would headline its Presidential Lecture series, discussing the future of AI and the technologies that would power its development.

Personal Life

Su is married to Daniel Lin. She resides in the United States. Su is a cousin of Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, a fact that has drawn attention given that AMD and Nvidia are competitors in the GPU and AI chip markets.

Su has spoken in various public forums about the importance of engineering education and increasing diversity in the technology industry. She has described her parents' influence on her career path, noting their encouragement of her interest in science and mathematics during her formative years.

Recognition

Su has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career, spanning both technical achievement and business leadership.

In 2002, the MIT Technology Review recognized her as one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 for her work on silicon-on-insulator technologies at IBM.

In 2009, she was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a distinction that recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of electrical and electronic engineering.

In 2014, EE Times named Su Executive of the Year, coinciding with her appointment as CEO of AMD. That same year, she became the first woman to be named Time magazine's CEO of the Year.

Su was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in the Technology Industry in 2016. She received the same recognition again in 2017.

In 2016, Su was honored as one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business.

In 2017, Fortune named her one of the World's Greatest Leaders. She was later ranked number 6 on Fortune's 2018 Businessperson of the Year list.

In 2018, Su received a Global Leadership Award.

In 2021, Su became the first woman to receive the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, which honors exceptional contributions to the microelectronics industry. The award is named after Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel and co-inventor of the integrated circuit.

Su was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors for engineers in the United States.

In 2024, she was named Time magazine's CEO of the Year for a second time and was selected as a Fellow of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. In 2025, Forbes ranked her as the tenth most powerful woman in the world. She was also named as one of the "Architects of AI" for Time's Person of the Year in 2025.

Legacy

Lisa Su's tenure as CEO of AMD is considered one of the most notable corporate turnarounds in the semiconductor industry. When she assumed the role in October 2014, AMD's market capitalization was approximately $3 billion and the company faced questions about its long-term viability as a competitor to Intel. Under her leadership, AMD's market capitalization grew to more than $200 billion, and the company overtook Intel in market capitalization for the first time in its history.

Su's emphasis on high-performance computing, the development of the Zen microarchitecture, and AMD's expansion into data center and AI markets reshaped the competitive dynamics of the semiconductor industry. The company's EPYC server processors gained adoption among major cloud computing providers, and AMD's GPU products became increasingly relevant in the AI acceleration market.

Her election as chair of the Semiconductor Industry Association in 2025 reflected her standing within the broader U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. Her selection to deliver MIT's 2026 Commencement address and her headline appearance at Purdue University's Presidential Lecture series further indicated her recognition as a leading figure in technology and engineering.

As one of the most prominent women in the technology industry, Su's career has been cited as an example of leadership in a field historically dominated by men. Her technical background — with a PhD in electrical engineering and foundational research in silicon-on-insulator technology — distinguished her from many of her CEO peers in the semiconductor industry, who more often came from finance or general management backgrounds.