Not Huang Renxun! AMD’s Su Zifeng graces the cover of 2024 Time magazine, honored as the Best CEO of the Year.
Time magazine has just announced its Best CEO of 2024, and to everyone’s surprise, it was not Huang Renxun, but Lisa Su, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Both Lisa Su and Huang Renxun were born in Tainan, Taiwan, and they both have solid backgrounds and work experience in the fields of science and engineering. Like Huang Renxun, Lisa Su does not dye her hair and her silver hair gives her a wise and mature impression. As an Asian female, Lisa Su has broken through the glass ceiling in the United States and become an outstanding CEO of a technology company, gracing the cover of Time magazine. She is no less impressive than Huang Renxun, and her ambition to challenge Nvidia’s position has attracted positive media coverage of AMD’s strategy and industry trends.
Recently, Lisa Su was interviewed by Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang, where she shared her life outside of work, such as her regular morning boxing exercises, revealing her exceptional physical and mental strength. Lisa Su said she likes to win, displaying a strong inner personality. While Lisa Su and Huang Renxun are distant cousins, both of them have become business leaders in the semiconductor industry as Asian Americans. However, Lisa Su states that it is purely coincidental, as she has only met and interacted with Huang Renxun a few times at business gatherings, with no family interactions.
When Lisa Su took over at AMD, the stock price was only $2. In 2017, AMD introduced the Zen architecture, which became a turning point for the company, propelling AMD into the chip race and officially competing with Intel and Nvidia as one of the top three players. This year, Intel is barely hanging on, while AMD does not need to exert any effort. Lisa Su’s leadership has led AMD to directly challenge Nvidia, even in the development of product lines and AI and gaming industries, all aimed at Nvidia. The previously low-key Lisa Su has started to gain media exposure, discussing product strategies and positioning.
Through a comprehensive redesign of AMD products and the promotion of AI initiatives, AMD’s market value surpassed that of its competitor Intel in 2022, ranking second in the semiconductor industry, only behind Nvidia. Being named Time magazine’s Best CEO of the Year has brought even more attention to Lisa Su, and the future outlook for AMD is optimistic. Lisa Su is also confident that she will bring AMD to new heights next year.
What is Lisa Su’s leadership style?
Lisa Su has a very different leadership style from Huang Renxun. While Huang Renxun can get along with anyone, Lisa Su has a serious and reserved demeanor. She often holds meetings with the management team in the morning and on weekends, and personally participates in product testing. She even enters the laboratory to work late at night. Former AMD executive Patrick Moorhead pointed out that Lisa Su’s management style may not be suitable for everyone, but it is highly effective for those who meet her high standards.
Slimming down AMD and expanding into the AI and gaming markets
AMD plans to reduce its workforce by 4% this year and fully develop the AI ecosystem. AMD is actively investing in cloud system companies and announced the $4.9 billion acquisition of ZT Systems on August 19th this year. ZT Systems is a company that provides cloud system and computing, telecommunications services, and accelerator solutions.
Currently, AMD’s main AI product is the MI 300 Generative AI Accelerator, which has a memory capacity of up to 192GB and 15.3 billion transistors, posing a strong challenge to Nvidia’s H100 chip. Nvidia’s H100 chip has been banned from export to China by the United States and even appeared on the black market in China. Nvidia introduced the H200 as a replacement for the H100 and migrated its manufacturing. AMD’s MI 300 entered the market at this time and has a great opportunity to capture Nvidia’s market share.
Lisa Su revealed that this year’s secret weapon is a gaming chip, which is said to be the fastest and most efficient gaming chip on the market, with powerful memory. Lisa’s confidence in the product comes from the X3D technology behind it. A separate article will be published later to analyze AMD’s gaming strategy and positioning.
The photo of Lisa Su on the cover of Time magazine shows a sharp and powerful aura, demonstrating her ambitious aspirations and a sign of her dreams coming true.
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