Time magazine’s CEO of the year keeps busy by running chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. from Austin, Texas.
AMD chief Lisa Su is in the global spotlight once again for building up a corporate powerhouse at a critical time in the industry.
AMD “really is one of the great turnaround stories of modern American business history,” Chris Miller, a semiconductor industry historian, tells Time. The article chronicled AMD’s longtime battle with rival Intel and the new threats brought by Nvidia, which has suddenly dominated the critical AI chip space.
Time delved into Su’s business habits, pointing out that the 55-year-old CEO “holds meetings on weekends and is known among her executives for wanting to talk on morning calls about the finer points of long documents that were circulated after midnight. When prototype chips get delivered from the factory, she often personally goes down to the lab to help scrutinize them.”
Before taking the reins of AMD, she was chief technology officer at Austin company Freescale Semiconductor Inc., as well as an engineer for IBM. She has been one of Fortune’s top business people every year since 2020 and was appointed to President Joe Biden’s council of advisers on science and technology in 2021. Among her many board roles, she is on the board of directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association.
When Su became CEO about a decade ago, AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) stock was a paltry $3 per share. Today, it’s closer to $130.
Su was recently named by the ABJ as one of Central Texas’ power players.
