AMD's CEO Wants to Chip Away at Nvidia's Lead | The Circuit with Emily Chang

The Ever-Changing Landscape of the Tech Industry

• The technology industry is constantly changing, with new developments happening rapidly, making it a challenging but exciting field to be in, with each advancement being like a new movie (28s).
• Lisa Su, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has a passion for electrical engineering and has worked at several big-name chip makers before transforming AMD into a formidable force in gaming, PCs, and the cloud (42s).
• Su's secret to success is her obsession with technology itself, as well as her no-nonsense approach, which has helped her to achieve her goals and prove others wrong (55s).
• The importance of semiconductors has become more widely recognized in recent years, with chips now powering a wide range of technologies, including smartphones, cars, planes, and the global economy (1m34s).
• The adaptability required in the technology industry is similar to that needed in high-performance sports, such as Formula One racing, where AMD sponsors the Mercedes AMG Petronas team (1m56s).
• The global technology race is also a battle for supremacy between China and the United States, with AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, facing intense competition, particularly from Nvidia, which has taken the lead in the field of AI (2m12s).

Lisa Su: The Driving Force Behind AMD's Transformation

• Su has been CEO of AMD for 10 years and has been working in the chip industry for decades, but she still faces new challenges, including surpassing arch-rival Intel and competing with Nvidia in the AI market (3m9s).
• Su's appointment as CEO of AMD was a dream come true, despite the company's struggles at the time, with the stock trading at $2 a share, but she was confident that she could turn the company around with the right strategy (3m55s).
• AMD was founded in 1969 by executives from Fairchild Semiconductor, and under Su's leadership, the company has undergone significant transformations to become a major player in the semiconductor industry (4m22s).

AMD's Journey: From Struggles to Success

• AMD was founded by Jerry Sanders, who famously said "Real men have fabs," referring to the plants that manufacture chips, and initially started as a memory chipmaker like Intel before expanding into new markets, but struggled to achieve the scale and performance of its larger rival (4m26s).
• AMD had to spin off its fabs and outsource its manufacturing due to a cash crisis, which was a sign of the uphill battle the company was facing, but its stock is now trading in a completely different stratosphere (4m45s).

The Zen Architecture: A Turning Point for AMD

• The launch of AMD's new architecture, Zen, was a crucial moment for the company, as it was a clean sheet design to create the next generation of CPU architecture for the next decade (5m10s).
• AMD's main competition in designing the best chips comes from Nvidia in graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel in central processing units (CPUs), with CPUs being the Swiss army knife of semiconductors and GPUs being more specialized for parallel processing and ideal for AI (5m34s).
• The new Zen architecture put AMD back on top and gave it a range of chips capable of taking market share from Intel, proving the naysayers wrong (6m7s).

AI: The Next Technological Revolution

• AMD's CEO believes that AI is the most transformational technology she has seen in her career, surpassing the rise of the internet, PCs, mobile phones, and cloud, with the rate and pace of change in the industry being faster than anything seen before (6m48s).
• To keep up with the pace of change, AMD's CEO enjoys learning about new technology and spends time with engineers, learning something new in every conversation and using that knowledge to suggest improvements (7m26s).
• The CEO visits the lab to learn about new technology and to cheer up engineers when there's a problem, rather than to crack the whip, as she believes that the engineers love what they do (7m53s).

AMD's Latest Innovations in Gaming and AI

• AMD is working on a new gaming chip that is expected to be the fastest in the world when it launches (8m24s).
• AMD has developed the fastest gaming chip in the world, featuring a special technology called X3D that stacks memory on top of the processor, making it phenomenal for gaming (8m41s).
• The company's AI chips, including the MI300, are currently in production and are being used to run AI workloads such as Microsoft Azure, GPT-4, and Meta's LLAMA (9m15s).
• AMD's CEO refers to the company's chips as her "children" and keeps a collection of them as souvenirs, with the MI300 being a notable one (9m33s).

The Race for AI Supremacy: AMD vs. Nvidia

• In the race to deliver the best chips for AI, AMD is focused on catching up to Nvidia, which is currently the dominant force in the industry (10m0s).
• Nvidia's GPUs have become a hot commodity for companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon, and its stock has surged as a result (10m17s).
• AMD is widely considered the next best option to Nvidia in the AI chip market (10m34s).
• The company's CEO does not view being seen as the underdog as a negative, citing AMD's history of achieving great things despite being a smaller company (10m42s).

Competition and Collaboration in the Chip Industry

• AMD's CEO and Nvidia's CEO, Jensen, are distant cousins, but they do not trade notes or have a close relationship (11m13s).
• Many of AMD's customers, including hyperscalers like Apple and Meta, are building their own chips, but this is not seen as a threat to the company (11m41s).

The Shifting Sands of the Semiconductor Industry

• The shakeup of the established semiconductor industry has been surprising, with the importance of chips being recognized as a critical component of the global economy and national security (12m4s).
• The chip industry is highly competitive, and one wrong bet or manufacturing delay can cost billions and give competitors an opportunity to take the lead, as seen in Intel's decline from being the world's dominant chipmaker to struggling with outdated technology and a grim growth forecast (12m40s).
• Intel's fall from dominance has been stunning, with the company experiencing its worst share decline in about 40 years and announcing plans to slash 15,000 jobs (12m49s).
• The chip industry is a "murderous race" where falling behind can lead to big trouble, and companies must constantly innovate to stay ahead (13m28s).

AMD's Rise and the Future of AI

• AMD's CEO, Lisa, has made a significant impact on the company, transforming it into a serious provider of cutting-edge technology and a company that people believe in and trust (13m51s).
• The industry is currently dominated by Nvidia, which is leading the way in AI technology and setting the direction for the industry, with other companies following its lead (14m17s).
• AMD is currently a solid number two in the market, but it still has a long way to go to catch up with Nvidia's tens of billions of dollars in revenue (14m49s).

Geopolitics and the Chip Industry

• The chip industry has become concentrated in Taiwan, particularly in logic manufacturing, due to the country's ability to provide high-quality manufacturing, which has enabled companies like Nvidia and AMD to compete with Intel (15m11s).
• The concentration of the chip industry in Taiwan has created a geopolitically difficult situation, with Taiwan being a rogue province claimed by China and the US serving as a guarantee of Taiwanese safety (15m36s).
• There is concern that China may take a strategic look at Taiwan in terms of taking hold of it, which could have significant implications for the global chip industry (16m3s).
• Chip manufacturing may return to the US in a meaningful way, with some expecting to see chip manufacturing come back to the US in the future (16m11s).
• The semiconductor world is global, and the US is now down to producing only around 10% of the world's chips, despite leading in research and design of new chip technologies (16m21s).
• The US government is considering capping exports of chips to other countries, and there's a need to balance open markets with national security interests (16m52s).
• Ensuring resiliency in the supply chain is crucial, and geographic concentration can be a risk, as seen in the past with a big storm in Texas that affected production (17m16s).

Lisa Su: A Glimpse into Her Personal Life

• AMD's CEO, Su, was born in Taiwan and has a big family with many cousins, aunts, and uncles, and she enjoys visiting her hometown and family (17m34s).
• Su's daily routine includes boxing at 6:30 am to boost energy, and her days are often spent in the office or on the road (18m11s).
• Su is a fan of fast cars and has a collection of Porsches with custom AMD-themed names and colors, including a graphite blue metallic color called "Epic" (18m55s).

The Intersection of Technology and Speed: AMD and Formula 1

• AMD's chips give the Mercedes F1 team a technological edge in competition, and Su enjoys watching Formula 1 racing for inspiration (18m45s).
• Formula 1 cars are like computers on wheels, filled with chips and sensors, and the technology behind the cars is just as impressive as the cars themselves (19m26s).
• Total Wolf, Mercedes racing boss, works closely with companies like AMD and a team of elite engineers to push the limits of speed and performance for their cars, emphasizing that winning involves a million different things and no single secret to success (20m0s).
• Wolf believes that the chip industry and motor racing both rely on good engineering, empowerment of people, development of people, and providing them with the tools to come up with good ideas and make them a reality (20m18s).
• The application of AI in racing is still in its early stages, with engineers acknowledging that human interaction is difficult to replicate due to the infinite amount of data involved, making individuals still superior to machines in racing cars (20m32s).
• Lewis Hamilton, a Formula 1 driver, had a difficult first practice session, experiencing a big spin, which can be detrimental to building confidence and speed on the circuit (21m12s).
• Hamilton is involved in the engineering side of things, enjoying the creative aspect of trying to understand and improve car designs (21m33s).
• He also uses gaming technology, specifically AMD's, and is a gamer who mainly plays Call of Duty but is open to exploring other games (21m48s).

Lisa Su's Leadership and Vision for the Future

• AMD's CEO, Su, has shown her ability to master a pivot and deliver results, and is now focused on the next step forward, rather than celebrating her accomplishments (22m16s).
• Su is passionate about developing the next generation of leadership, particularly in increasing the number of women in technology, and believes in the importance of confidence, taking chances, and not being afraid of failure (22m34s).
• She advises young engineers to run towards problems, work hard, and volunteer for opportunities, as she was given this advice when she was a young engineer (23m9s).
• It is recommended to work hard on something that is really important and to look for the hardest problem to solve in order to learn and distinguish oneself (23m19s).
• Volunteering to help solve a difficult problem can lead to significant learning and personal growth, even if mistakes are made along the way (23m26s).
• The worst-case scenario of making a mistake is not severe, as it is possible to learn from the experience and move forward the next day (23m32s).