AMD CEO Lisa Su Gives MIT Commencement Address

InnovationAIAMD CEO Lisa Su Gives MIT Commencement AddressByJohn Werner,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I am an MIT Senior Fellow & Lecturer, 5x-founder & VC investing in AIFollow AuthorMay 29, 2026, 01:24pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Lisa Su, chairwoman and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), delivers the opening keynote speech at Computex 2024, Taiwan's premier tech expo, in Taipei on June 3, 2024. (Photo by I-Hwa CHENG / AFP) (Photo by I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesAmid all of the ruckus around this year’s commencement, I was pleased to be able to attend the graduation address of Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, who is herself part of the MIT community, and had some good things to say, about humanity, about AI, and about the future.Su talked about her arrival at MIT in 1986, a time that, from today’s standpoint, was an analog age, before so much of what we are now accustomed to in terms of technology. But even then, students and faculty were hard at work on ground-breaking projects of their time, and one thing that Su really highlighted in her talk was that experience of hands-on experimentation, of building.“MIT has this incredible way of pushing you further than you thought you could go,” she said. “You wrestled with the problem. You blew up a circuit or two. And then, somehow … the thing worked. And suddenly, you realized you could build something real. That’s when I started feeling like an engineer.”In fact, Su explained, it was this type of work that eventually led her to the semiconductor industry, where she is now a prominent name. She talked about an early MIT project, making X-ray lithography mask blanks in building 39.“I ran a bunch of experiments,” she said. “Most of them didn’t work the way we expected. So, we adjusted. And tried again. It was the coolest thing ever. For the first...