AMD (AMD) CEO Lisa Su’s game-changing 2026 exemplifies why she joined the company nearly 15 years ago. “The reason I joined AMD was I wanted to be part of a company that really could be at the bleeding edge of technology. And I’m a big believer [that] technology drives tremendous good in the economy and
AMD (AMD) CEO Lisa Su’s game-changing 2026 exemplifies why she joined the company nearly 15 years ago.
“The reason I joined AMD was I wanted to be part of a company that really could be at the bleeding edge of technology. And I’m a big believer [that] technology drives tremendous good in the economy and in the world, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Su said at Yahoo Finance Invest. “And so, if I fast-forward 10 years later, I think what I can say [is] we are driving the bleeding edge of technology. I can say that for sure. It’s amazing some of the technology that we have out there, but we’re also driving some of the most important technology in the world.”
Su has had a masterful year at the helm of AMD, not unlike the years that have come before. But this year has rung differently.
From making game-changing deals for AMD and delivering above and beyond on earnings days to being awarded the National Medal of Science by President Trump and participating in numerous high-profile meetings on the world stage, Su has executed at her highest level in years (and her bar was already high).
AMD investors have been handsomely rewarded — shares are up158% year to date even in the face of the post-Election Day tech stock massacre. The stock has outperformed chip rivals such as Nvidia (NVDA), which has fallen 7% year to date, and Broadcom (AVGO), which is down less than 1%.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) are up 11% and 10%for the year, respectively.
For these reasons, Yahoo Finance has awarded Su our coveted “CEO of the Year” award.
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Su’s big year, at a glance
Su has been crushing it at a chip company that almost went bust when she walked in the door as a top executive in 2012.
Since assuming the CEO position in 2014, Su has completely transformed the company into Nvidia’s strongest rival. She has closed major deals in recent years, such as the acquisition of Xilinx and a partnership with Meta (META) that could see the social media outfit own up to 10% of the company in the future.
Su’s 2026, however, reads like a storybook for a C-suite leader where everything has gone right — at least in the eyes of investors.
World Labs was founded in 2024 and is led by Fei-Fei Li, a leading AI researcher known in tech circles as the “Godmother of AI.” She was once the chief scientist at Google Cloud (GOOG).
Li will join AMD as an executive vice president and chief scientist. The direct reporting line to Su underscores the pivotal role Li will play in shaping AMD amid the unprecedented AI boom.
Lisa Su, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), holds an AMD Instinct MI455X GPU during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images) ·Bloomberg
It currently stands at $906 billion, reflecting the selling pressure that has engulfed markets after the midterms rather than Su’s execution.
In fact, just a few weeks ago AMD delivered a strong double beat in its third quarter earnings report. Third quarter sales jumped 45% year over year to a record $13.38 billion, comfortably surpassing Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly $13.06 billion.
Adjusted earnings climbed 74% to $2.09 per share, easily topping analyst projections of $1.94 per share.
The blowout performance was anchored by AMD’s Data Center segment, where revenue surged 97% to a record $8.5 billion on robust demand for EPYC server processors and the production ramp of Instinct MI450 AI accelerators.
For the fourth quarter, AMD said it sees 50% sequential growth in data centers. In 2027, Su guided to revenue growing more than 80%, with server revenue doubling and data center AI more than doubling.
“We are firm believers in AMD’s revitalized product road map strategy, and product traction is compelling,” HSBC analyst John Vinh said. “However, expectations for share gains and growth are high. We’re concerned that any moderate downtick to expectations could add substantial risk to the stock based on valuation levels well above peers.”
Amid a year of impressive earnings execution, AMD also unveiled its next-generation AI chips, headlined by the Instinct MI450 Series GPUs and the 6th Gen EPYC Venice CPUs. The new chips are designed to power AMD’s new Helios rack-scale AI systems, which combine GPUs, CPUs, networking, and software into an integrated platform for training and running large AI models.
Microsoft (MSFT) said it began to deploy Helios across Azure AI services beginning in the second half of 2026.
The company also announced a major tie-up with Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), significantly expanding its push to challenge Nvidia in the AI infrastructure market.
Anthropic plans to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of the Instinct MI450 GPUs in its Helios system beginning in the first half of 2027 — a deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars over time. AMD also committed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, marking one of the chipmaker’s largest strategic investments ever.
Su acknowledged the fresh market jitters. But she sees no letup in demand for her chips, and that’s why she is staying confident in her guidance into 2027.
“I think the market can sometimes be a little bit short-sighted. It is what it is,” Su said.
“What I look at is in the long term, if you believe, which I do, I believe very deeply that computing, in many ways, equates to intelligence,” Su added. “So the more compute you have, the more intelligent your company is, the more problems you’re going to be able to solve, the more you’re going to accelerate your business. … We’re always looking at what do we see over the horizon? And over the horizon, I see AI and superintelligence becoming more and more essential to every aspect of our lives and every aspect of our business. So I believe in this demand, and I very much believe that many of the investments that are being made throughout the ecosystem are also seeing some of these same trends.”
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