The version of Lisa Su who took the stage at SXSW 2024 in Austin, Texas, was a refreshing departure from the typically serious AMD CEO known for her focused demeanor at past conferences. Clad in jeans, a T-shirt, and cowboy boots, Su radiated warmth and enthusiasm as she welcomed attendees with a broad smile. "Is this a great crowd?" she asked, eliciting an enthusiastic roar of approval. "Wonderful, welcome to Austin!" Notably, Su has called Austin home, despite AMD's headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Su, who has led AMD for a decade and holds a graduate degree from MIT, brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the event. David Conley, a creative force behind the Oscar-winning animated short "War is Over," made an appearance after a late-night celebration of the Oscars. Conley’s firm relies on AMD chips, which have also powered the production of Pixar’s "Elemental" and James Cameron’s "Avatar 2." "Special effects require a tremendous amount of compute," emphasized Su, highlighting the critical role that AMD technology plays in the entertainment industry.
Su shared insights into her personal journey, identifying as a "nerd at heart." Her first experience in the semiconductor field came with "grunt" work in a lab when semiconductor chips were remarkably small, akin to the size of a dime or quarter. "I was in semiconductors when it wasn’t sexy," she recalled. "I don't know if it’s sexy now, but it’s certainly sexier."
This approachable version of Su presents a striking contrast to her rival in the industry, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, who is recognized for his iconic black leather jacket and a tattoo of the company's logo. When asked about AMD’s position in relation to Nvidia, particularly in the highly competitive GPU market vital for AI applications, Su noted that there is ample opportunity for multiple players. "AI is really the most important technology over the next decade, and we’re still in the early stages," she stated. "There’s no one-size-fits-all solution."
While expressing respect for Nvidia's achievements, Su remains confident in AMD's trajectory. The company recently launched its latest generative AI chip, the MI300, which boasts an impressive 153 billion transistors, arranged in a configuration that maximizes performance.
Su acknowledged the current shortage of computing power but assured that AMD is adept at scaling up production. "That's what we’re focused on," she noted.
Reflecting on the future, Su proclaimed, "AI is the most significant technology to emerge in the last half-century." This sentiment resonates especially in light of the public's fascination with generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, which simplify complex tasks through powerful computing capabilities.
In the next decade, Su predicts that AI will be ubiquitous—integrating seamlessly into data centers, edge computing, and personal computers. She described a new breed of AI PCs where the AI infrastructure operates locally, minimizing the need for data to travel to and from the cloud.
During her presentation, AMD showcased a video demonstrating a PC powered by its Ryzen 8000 chip, using Stable Diffusion to generate an image from the prompt "a very cute bat eating tacos in Austin." The image was rendered within seconds on a local machine, illustrating the remarkable speed and efficiency of the technology. "You can see just how fast it is," Su said. "And you don’t have to pay anyone to run this."
As Su concluded her remarks, she promised an exhilarating future for AI technology, suggesting that the advancements on the horizon are nothing short of "mind-blowing."
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