Lisa Su

The Engineer Who Saved AMD and Revolutionized Computing

tech business
Lisa Su

Net Worth

$750M

Born

November 7, 1969 (age 56)

Country

Taiwan

Occupation

CEO, Electrical Engineer, Business Executive

Gender

female

Generation

Gen X

Marital Status

married

Children

2

Single Parent Household

No

Education

PhD

University

MIT

Industries

tech, business

Wealth Category

multi-millionaire

Wealth Origin

self-made

First-Gen Wealth

Yes

Immigrant

Yes

Overcame

  • Immigrated to the US at age 3 with barely any English
  • Entered male-dominated field of electrical engineering in the 1980s
  • Took over AMD when stock was under $3 and company was near bankruptcy
  • Faced skepticism as a woman and minority leading a major tech company

Lisa Su is a Taiwanese-American business executive and electrical engineer who has served as the chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) since 2014. She is credited with leading AMD's turnaround, transforming it from a struggling company into a major competitor to Intel and NVIDIA. She is widely regarded as one of the most successful CEOs in technology.

Career Timeline

1969

Born in Tainan, Taiwan

1972 Age 3
Turning Point

Immigrated to the United States with family

1990 Age 21
Achievement

Earned BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT

1991 Age 22
Achievement

Earned MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT

1994 Age 25
Achievement

Earned PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT

1995 Age 26
Turning Point

Joined Texas Instruments in Semiconductor Process and Device Center

2007 Age 38
Achievement

Joined Freescale Semiconductor as CTO

2012 Age 43
Turning Point

Joined AMD as Senior Vice President

2014 Age 45
Milestone

Became CEO of AMD when company was struggling

2017 Age 48
Achievement

Launched Ryzen processors - AMD's comeback begins

2020 Age 51
Milestone

AMD stock hits all-time high, up over 3,000% since becoming CEO

Notable Quotes

"I've always been focused on solving problems. The bigger the problem, the more interesting it is."

— Interview, 2019

"If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. You need to push the boundaries."

— Interview, 2018

"MIT taught me how to think and solve really hard problems."

— MIT Investiture of Doctoral Hoods, 2017

"I believe that diversity of thought leads to better outcomes."