AMD CEO Lisa Su's speech at the MIT Class of 2026 Commencement: Face challenges head-on and create your own luck

Lisa Su: Good afternoon, everyone!

President Reif, Chair Gorenberg, members of the Corporation, faculty, staff, families, friends, and most importantly, the Class of 2026 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -

Congratulations! You've earned this.

Standing here feels very different from what I expected. I've given many speeches around the world, but this one is especially special. As Murphy's Law would have it, I lost my voice this week. So, please forgive me if my voice sounds a bit hoarse. But I'm really thrilled to be here with you.

My MIT Story

In the fall of 1986, I came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I was 17 years old at the time, born in Taiwan, China, and grew up in Queens. I always knew I was good at math. Then I walked into Rooms 6-1 and 6-2. After about two weeks, I realized that there were a lot of people at MIT who were extremely good at math.

I remember staring at the initial problem sets and thinking: Oh my god, these problems are so difficult. I pulled my first all-nighter during my freshman year. It was a brand-new experience, but it was really fun staying up late with my classmates.

MIT has an incredible way of pushing you beyond what you think your limits are. You struggle with a problem, burn out one or two circuits - yes, some of you may have done that - and then somehow, it works. Suddenly, you realize that you can create something truly useful. That's when I started to feel like an engineer.

One of the best parts of MIT is that undergraduates have the opportunity to participate in real research, which really changed my life. My first UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) was in Professor Hank Smith's lab in Building 39, making mask blanks for X-ray lithography for a graduate student. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what that meant at the time. But the first time I put on a clean suit and walked into the cleanroom and started fabricating devices on those tiny 2-inch wafers - which was quite advanced back then. I quickly learned to be careful because those wafers were very fragile, and I didn't want to be the one to break them.

I conducted a lot of experiments, and most of them didn't go as expected. So we adjusted our approach and tried again. That was the coolest thing I've ever done. For the first time, I wasn't just sitting in a classroom learning technology; I was part of a team, discovering new things. I remember thinking: Wow, we can make things so small - small enough to fit on a coin - but powerful enough to change the world. That's when I fell in love with semiconductors.

Later, I was fortunate enough to work with Professor Dimitri Antoniadis, who became my doctoral advisor. That's where I really learned how to solve problems. I remember spending weeks in the cleanroom fabricating devices, then taking the wafers to the test lab, only to find that their behavior was completely different from what I expected. So I went back to Dimitri's office, and we discussed what to do next.

Looking back, that was probably the period when I grew the most at MIT. Little by little, I went from a novice graduate student to someone doing original research and making real new contributions to the field. In the process, I started to believe in myself. It wasn't the kind of confidence that says "I always know the answer," but the confidence that says "even if I don't know the answer, I can figure it out."

Now I realize that MIT taught me far more than just semiconductor device physics. "Mens et Manus" - "Mind and Hand." When I was a student, I thought it was just a school motto; now I understand that this is exactly why MIT is so special. MIT teaches you to think deeply and also to build and test your ideas, and to keep going even when your first or even fifth experiment fails. Over time, you start to believe that you can solve problems that once seemed impossible.

The Engineer's Intuition

Even long after leaving campus, I still carry that feeling with me. When I joined IBM, I found myself starting all over again. IBM had hundreds of thousands of employees, and I was 25 years old, not knowing how I could make a difference in such a large company. But I quickly learned an important lesson: Engineering doesn't really care how old you are; it only cares if you have good ideas.

One of my mentors told me something I'll never forget: Take on the toughest problems and solve them. At the time, I wasn't sure if I really understood what that meant, but now I realize that it was the best advice I've ever received. Difficult problems really help you understand your potential.

Fast forward 12 years, and I finally had the opportunity to test this lesson. I became the CEO of AMD. AMD had great potential, but the company had gone through a few tough years. Some of my mentors thought taking this job was very risky. But for me, it was the job of my dreams - it was the opportunity I'd been preparing for for years: to be at the forefront of technology and solve truly important problems.

The first thing we had to do was figure out what kind of company we wanted to become when we grew up. We made a long-term bet: High-performance computing would become the most important technology of the future. We gave our talented team full freedom to think big. In the next few years, we built the most powerful computers in the world.

I can tell you that I used all the skills MIT taught me and more. I tried to put it into words and finally thought the term "the engineer's intuition" was appropriate. It's the ability to take a seemingly unsolvable problem, break it down, and then solve it step by step in an orderly manner.

But I also learned another thing: When the engineer's intuition is shared by a team, it becomes even more powerful. The greatest satisfaction in my career has been bringing people together to accomplish something that none of us thought was possible.

We're at the Beginning of the AI Wave

This brings us to the era you're in. In the past few decades, we've experienced several major technological changes: The Internet changed the way we communicate, mobile computing changed the way we live, and cloud computing changed the way we work. And now, we're at the beginning of the artificial intelligence wave.

In my opinion, AI is very different from all the previous waves. It's not just a tool that allows us to do things faster - we already have too many such tools. It's much deeper than that. It has the ability to accelerate discoveries in every field and help us solve problems that we've never been able to solve before.

Personally, what excites me the most is what we can do in the fields of medicine and healthcare. We've all experienced how it feels when a loved one is sick. Even with the best doctors and the most careful care, you realize how difficult it is for any one person or team to gather all the knowledge to help in that critical moment. AI can help us change that. It can help doctors and researchers bring the world's best expertise to every patient and every loved one, providing the best care we want. I think this is the most wonderful promise of AI.

Think about it this way: It makes everyone more capable. Whether it's medicine, science, energy, or climate, I think we can say that in the next 10 years, we may make more discoveries than in the past 30 years.

But let me be clear: Technology itself doesn't determine what the future will be like; the best people do. No matter what AI can do, AI can't decide which problems are worth solving. When data is missing, AI can't make difficult judgments. AI can't take responsibility for the results. These are actually our responsibilities, and they're more important than ever.

That's why I think graduating from MIT is at an extraordinary moment. The world not only needs people who know how to use powerful tools but also people who know what to do with them - people with a sense of mission, judgment, and courage. People who look at a difficult problem and say, "I know this is really important, and we can figure out how to solve it." And that's exactly the kind of people you've become at MIT.

Create Your Own Luck

I've been very lucky in many ways. I have great parents, received an extraordinary education, and had the opportunity to work with excellent people. But I also believe that I've been really lucky in my career. When people ask me for career advice, I often tell them: Yes, you need to work very hard, but you also need to understand that luck is important. Over time, I've come to believe that the best people find a way to create their own luck.

Luck isn't just "being in the right place at the right time." It means taking risks to solve truly difficult problems; it means challenging yourself; it means choosing problems that you may not know the answers to; it means surrounding yourself with people who can make you better. And yes, it means believing that you - the Class of 2026 - can change the world.

So, have infinite ambition for the problems you choose to solve. Take on the tough challenges and trust what MIT has taught you - that engineer's intuition. That's how you create your own luck.

Expressions of Gratitude and Well - Wishes

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the families and friends here today. Without you, these graduates wouldn't be here. Thank you for believing in them, supporting them, and helping them reach this moment. This achievement is also yours.

To the Class of 2026: Remember, one day in the future, you'll walk into another room, and you won't have any idea what you're doing. But you've done this before. Figure it out on your own.

As one member of MIT to another, I'm extremely honored to be here with you today. Congratulations, Class of 2026!

This article is from the WeChat official account "Houlang Evolution Planet," author: Mark. Republished by 36Kr with permission.