AMD CEO Su Zifeng: Taiwan still plays a critical role in the supply chain, supporting semiconductor companies to return to the United States

AMD CEO Lisa Su shared in a public interview at Stanford University in the United States on 2/28 how she immigrated from Taiwan to the United States and entered the semiconductor industry, and eventually became one of the most influential leaders in the global semiconductor industry. She candidly admitted that growing up in a typical Asian family was filled with academic and musical pressures, but it also cultivated her curiosity and perseverance.

"When I was young, I loved to dismantle things and wanted to know why they broke," Su Zifeng said. This curiosity about technology led her to complete her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (MIT) in the United States, and she entered the semiconductor industry by chance, thus beginning her career.

From engineer to CEO, breaking the glass ceiling of the semiconductor industry

Su Zifeng said that after graduating, she worked successively in technical and managerial positions at (Texas Instruments), IBM, and (Freescale Semiconductor). She emphasized that she did not plan her career development from the beginning, but grew through learning at every step.

"When IBM gave me the opportunity to report directly to the CEO and assist him in understanding the technology," she recalled, "this experience taught me that the work of a leader is not only technical, but also team management and strategic thinking." This experience led her to join AMD in 2012, and within just two years, she was appointed as CEO, becoming a key driver of AMD's transformation.

AMD on the verge of bankruptcy, led by Su Zifeng to revive the company

When Su Zifeng took over as CEO of AMD in 2014, the company was facing a financial crisis, with its stock price falling to just $3, and even rumors of bankruptcy. After taking office, she immediately carried out major reforms, focusing on high-performance computing (HPC), rather than the popular mobile chips in the market at that time.

After our analysis, we found that although the mobile chip market is huge, our advantage does not lie there. What we are best at is high-performance computing, which is the direction AMD can develop. She made bold decisions and focused on the PC, gaming, and data center markets, launching the Ryzen processor based on the Zen architecture, successfully allowing AMD to compete with Intel in the CPU market and even surpassing the competitor in certain areas.

After years of hard work, AMD's stock price has soared from $3 to a high of $200, making it an important player in the global semiconductor industry.

The AI era is coming, how does AMD challenge NVIDIA

With the rise of AI, there is a skyrocketing demand for graphics processors (GPU) globally, and NVIDIA (NVIDIA) dominates the market with its CUDA platform and powerful GPU. However, Su Zifeng emphasized that AMD is taking a different strategy, following an open ecosystem route, aiming to challenge NVIDIA's market position with flexibility.

"We believe there is more than one way to do AI computing, and open architecture gives developers more choices." She believes that AI will be everywhere in the future, from cloud data centers to PCs, mobile phones and even edge devices, AMD's strategy is to provide the best solution for a variety of different AI computing.

The role of AMD in the semiconductor and geopolitical landscape, under the US-China tech war

In recent years, the US-China tech war has intensified, and the US government has imposed strict export controls on chips to China, affecting many semiconductor companies including AMD. Su Zifeng said that as a US company, AMD fully complies with the regulations of the US government. But she also emphasized that the semiconductor industry is part of the global supply chain, and all companies must find a balance in such an environment.

"We support more semiconductor manufacturing returning to the United States, but this takes time because building the supply chain is not something that can be completed in a day," she believes that Taiwan will continue to play a key role in the global semiconductor supply chain, and future cooperation between the United States, Taiwan, and Europe will be even closer.

The next step in the AI era, Su Zifeng's vision and challenges

When it comes to the future development of AI, Su Zifeng said that although AI technology is already very powerful, it is still "quite primitive". There is still much room for improvement in the future, especially in reducing computational costs, improving accuracy, and increasing automation.

"In the future, AI will not only answer questions, but also be able to perform more complex tasks and become a true digital assistant." She believes that AI will not only change the technology industry, but will also affect various fields such as medicine, manufacturing, and energy, helping humans solve many long-standing unresolved issues.

Advice for the younger generation, dreams should be big enough

When facing questions from Stanford students, Su Zifeng encouraged the younger generation to dare to dream. She believes that AI is just beginning and the next 5 to 10 years will be a golden period for entrepreneurship and innovation. 'If you have a bold dream, now is the best time to chase it!' she strongly emphasized.

(AMD CEO Su Zifeng talks about AI, chips, and the technological game between the US and China, and is optimistic about the direction of the Trump administration's policies)

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