In 2014, when Lisa Su took over as CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, AMD was on the verge of bankruptcy. Su bet hard on hardware and not only pulled the semiconductor company back from the brink, but also led it to surpass its historical rival, Intel, in market cap. Since the launch of ChatGPT made high-powered chips like AMDs “sexy” again, demand for chips has intensified exponentially, but so has the public spotlight on the industry — including from the federal government. In a live conversation, at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, as part of their inaugural Discovery Series, Kara talks to Su about her strategy in face of the Trump administration’s tariff and export control threats, how to safeguard the US in the global AI race, and what she says when male tech leaders brag about the size of their GPUs. Listen to more from On with Kara Swisher here. Help us plan for the future of Pivot by filling out a brief survey: voxmedia.com/survey. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Look at all these people who are here in the evening.
I know, to talk about chips. Yes, we're very excited.
It's on!
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.
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.
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