As the President and CEO of US semiconductor giant Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), Lisa Su is well deserving of the title of legend in the field of AI
As a manufacturer of graphical processing units ( GPUs ), AMD plays an important role in the field of machine learning , where , thanks to their highly parallel nature , GPUs are invaluable . Despite this , AMD has not entered the field as fully as its main competitor such as Intel or GPU manufacturer Nvidia , for instance not offering a dedicated AI chip . Under Su ’ s leadership , that is changing , however . She has said that the company is considering building dedicated accelerators for applications such as machine learning , adding : “ We ’ ll absolutely see AMD be a large player in AI ”.
Born in Taiwan , Su arrived in the United States at the age of three years old . Later , she studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before going on to work for Texas Instruments and IBM , where she helped propel significant advancements in semiconductor design . She joined AMD as SVP in 2012 from Freescale Semiconductor , where she had served as Chief Technology Officer , before attaining the role of CEO and President in 2014 .
In a keynote speech at this year ’ s Consumer Electronics show , Su emphasised the
AMD cemented its position in the industry with a purchase of competitor Xilinx for
$ 35bn company ’ s commitment to digital transformation in society , saying : “ AMD is incredibly proud to be at the heart of products , services and experiences keeping us productive , learning , connected and entertained in an increasingly ‘ digital first ’ world ,” said Dr . Su . “ We are committed to consistently pushing the envelope on what ’ s possible in PCs , gaming , data centers and the cloud together with our industry partners .”
The company recently cemented its position in the semiconductor industry with a purchase of competitor Xilinx in a $ 35bn deal . Su said of the deal : “ Our acquisition of Xilinx marks the next leg in our journey to establish AMD as the industry ’ s high performance computing leader and partner of choice for the largest and most important technology companies in the world . [...] By combining our world-class engineering teams and deep domain expertise , we will create an industry leader with the vision , talent and scale to define the future of high performance computing .”
As one of the industry ’ s most prominent women , Su also made our recent list of the Top 100 Women in Technology , coming in at fifth place overall . aimagazine . com 17