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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
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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)
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.

  • Trisha Sengupta
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Trisha Sengupta

    Trisha Sengupta is a Chief Content Producer at Hindustan Times with over six years of digital newsroom experience. Specialising in high-engagement storytelling, she blends viral trends with traditional journalism to cover the intersection of technology, finance, and human emotion. Her reporting spans real estate and personal finance struggles in hubs like Bengaluru and Gurgaon, the NRI experience, and corporate shifts like tech layoffs. Trisha also frequently tracks global figures and writes human interest stories. Offline, Trisha is an avid reader, history enthusiast and solo traveler. She balances her journalism career with family life while actively integrating AI tools into her modern storytelling approach.Read More