CEO of $210 billion company, Jensen Huang’s cousin, encourages mid-night hustle, weekend meetings

55-year-old Lisa Su was named Time’s 2024 CEO of the Year. After becoming CEO in 2014, she had drastically grown her company, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Updated on: Dec 17, 2024, 09:14:22 IST

By Trisha Sengupta

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Lisa Su, the CEO of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), recently revealed the work culture in her $210 billion company in an interview. Working on weekends and having morning calls after sending memos at midnight are prevalent practices in the company whose leader was named Time’s 2024 CEO of the Year.

Lisa Su, the CEO of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). (X/@LisaSu)

Patrick Moorhead, a tech-industry analyst and a former AMD executive, told Time that Su’s hard-charging style of leadership isn’t for everyone, and those who “don’t meet their commitments” find it hard to survive at the company. Moorhead left the company before Su joined.

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The 55-year-old, also a cousin of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, reportedly expects her executives to be able to discuss the finer points of long documents in morning calls after circulating them at midnight. She is also known for personally scrutinizing prototype chips after they are delivered from the factory.

Who is Lisa Su?

Born in Taiwan, she moved to the US when she was just three years old, reported the outlet. Her family migrated so that her father could attend graduate school. She grew up in New York City and could write rudimentary programs from a very young age.

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After attending school in the Bronx, she majored in electrical engineering at MIT and later earned a PhD in the same subject. During the first years of her career, she worked at Texas Instruments and IBM before assuming more leadership roles.

“I was really lucky early in my career,” she told Time, adding, “Every two years, I did a different thing.” She joined AMD in 2012 as a VP. In just two years, she assumed the role of CEO. According to CNBC, AMD is a $210 billion company.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trisha Sengupta
Trisha Sengupta works as Chief Content Producer at Hindustan Times with over six years of experience in the digital newsroom. Known for her ability to decode the internet’s most talked-about moments, she specialises in high-engagement storytelling that bridges the gap between viral trends and traditional journalism. Throughout her tenure, Trisha has focused on the intersection of technology, finance, and human emotion. She frequently covers personal finance and real estate struggles in hubs like Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, while also documenting the unique challenges of the NRI experience. Her work often highlights the movements and philosophies of global newsmakers and personalities like Elon Musk, Mukesh Ambani, Nikhil Kamath, Dubai crown prince, and MrBeast. From reporting on Amazon or Meta layoffs and startup culture to the emergence of AI-driven platforms like Grok and xAI, she provides a grounded and empathetic perspective on the stories shaping our world. When not decoding the internet, Trisha is likely offline: lost in a book, exploring a historical ruin, or navigating the world as a solo traveler. She balances her fast-paced career with family time and a healthy dose of curiosity, currently trading her "human" sources for silicon ones as she masters AI to future-proof her storytelling.Read More

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