AMD CEO Lisa Su on the “Dead Sexy” AI Chips Race - On with Kara Swisher
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Why is Lisa Su a pivotal figure in the semiconductor industry?
Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is On with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher. I've spoken to many people here on the podcast about the AI race, and a lot of the focus has been on generative models and the companies that make them. But the real power and a lot of the tension in the AI space is in the hardware, the semiconductor industry that is building all of that compute. My guest today has been a leader in the chips industry for more than a decade. Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, better known as AMD. When Su took over AMD in 2014, which a lot of people warned her not to do, the company was almost on the verge of bankruptcy. By 2022, AMD was thriving and has surpassed its biggest rival Intel in market cap. Last year, Su was named Time's CEO of the Year. I really always like talking to Lisa.
We have a great rapport, largely because she's a straight shooter, and she actually tells me exactly what she thinks all the time, even when we don't agree on things. She's also, unfortunately, one of the few women CEOs in tech, and so she stands out for that reason alone. But she also stands out because she's incredibly qualified for the job, and it's a big job these days. You would think that the increased demand for the best high-powered chips to fuel the AI race would mean that Sue and Andy were just coasting, but not so. There are a lot of headwinds, not the least of which are the back-and-forth terror threats, export controls, funding cuts, and all the other chaos coming from the Trump administration in the past 100-plus days.
What challenges does AMD face in the global AI race?
And instead of just two major competitors, Intel and, of course, the now popular NVIDIA, there are a slew of other newcomers in the space to contend with, including in China. I talked to her all about that and about her strategy for this new future at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center this week. This was the third event we've done there in our joint AI Discovery Series. It was a great conversation with a lot of insights about the state of the industry today and where it's going. And it was actually very funny. You'll see what I'm talking about when we talk about size and GPUs. So have a listen.
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It is over. Lisa, thank you so much for coming. The last time we sat down for an interview was 2021. It seems like forever ago.
It seems like forever ago, yes.
It wasn't that long ago, but a couple milestones have passed since then. In 2022, AMD passed your biggest rival, Intel, in market cap for the first time. Congrats on that. Thank you. A few months later, ChatGPT came out and basically started the AI race. And of course, most recently, President Trump launched a trade war with China. I don't know if you've heard about it, but it's happening. Maybe a little. Maybe a little. You would have to pay a lot of attention to it. So rank these three in terms of importance of how you're thinking about your business right now, your place, your competitors, innovations, political challenges. Yeah.
Well, first of all, Cara, it's great to be here. Great to see everybody in the audience. I like talking about chips. You're going to see that from me.
Yes.
I started in the chip industry. I mean, I'm going to date myself, but I've been in the chip industry for 30 years. And back when I went to school, chips were not exciting. Why did you do it? You were at MIT. I was at MIT. It was cool at MIT, but okay. It wasn't even that cool. It was sort of cool at MIT, but not like amazingly cool. All right.
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