Here's How The Success Of AMD Chips Made TIME Magazine Name This Woman As CEO Of The Year

In recent years, AMD has significantly narrowed the gap with its competitors, achieving a market capitalisation of nearly $207 billion—more than double Intel’s $86.95 billion.

The Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has been chosen as the CEO of the Year by TIME magazine. This marks a significant milestone in Lisa Su's career and stands tall as a symbol of her excellent leadership in the semiconductor industry. She took charge of AMD in 2014, and steered the company from near obscurity to a market leader. If you are wondering how AMD chips contributed to her success, then you are in for a treat.

Su's rise to leadership has been anything but conventional, driven by her technical prowess, strategic vision, and dedication to fostering change. Before we hop on to the contribution of chips in her success, let us first familiarize ourselves with Su a bit.

Who Is Lisa Su?

Lisa Su’s journey is a remarkable story of passion, perseverance, and strategic leadership. Born in Taiwan and raised in New York, Su displayed a natural curiosity for technology and engineering from an early age. Her enthusiasm drove her to pursue advanced studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. This strong academic background set the stage for a career marked by technical excellence and innovative thinking. Su’s professional trajectory took off at Texas Instruments, where she honed her skills in the semiconductor division. She later joined IBM, further solidifying her expertise in the tech industry. 

In 2014, Su stepped into the role of CEO at AMD, a company grappling with serious challenges. At the time, AMD was struggling to compete with Intel, its dominant rival in the semiconductor sector. Its stock was hovering around $3 per share, according to Bloomberg, and its foothold in the data-center chip market had significantly eroded. Many doubted whether the company could recover.

As an engineer with a deep understanding of technology, Su led a transformative shift at AMD. She overhauled the company’s strategy, revitalized its product lineup, and strengthened relationships with key customers. Her leadership ushered in a new era of innovation, particularly in the development of Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). These advancements helped AMD gain substantial ground in both consumer and enterprise markets, as noted by Time.

AMD's Success In Industry

In recent years, AMD has significantly narrowed the gap with its competitors, achieving a market capitalisation of nearly $207 billion—more than double Intel’s $86.95 billion. Notably, in 2022, AMD's valuation surpassed Intel's for the first time in its history. Today, AMD's stock price hovers around $140, marking an astonishing 50-fold increase since Lisa Su assumed the role of CEO, according to Time.

A major driver of this remarkable success is AMD’s strategic entry into the data-center chip market. While Intel had long dominated the high-performance chip sector for data centers, Su and her team focused on enhancing AMD’s product offerings. This strategic pivot positioned AMD as a strong competitor in the industry. Its advanced chips now power major cloud service providers, including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, solidifying its reputation as a key player in the data-center space.

This success of AMD chips solidified the name of AMD in the industry, which highlighted the effectiveness of Su. It not only showed her right decisions and leadership but also proved that AMD is here to change the landscape and made itself a formidable and deserving contendor for the top spot. All this would not have happened so quickly without the woman behind this success, i.e., Lisa Su.