AMD CEO Lisa Su just delivered a direct rebuttal to mounting AI bubble fears, telling attendees at WIRED's Big Interview conference that concerns are "emphatically" overblown. Su's defense comes as her company bets billions on AI infrastructure demand while Nvidia dominates with a $4.4 trillion market cap versus AMD's $353 billion.
Lisa Su isn't backing down from the AI arms race, even as bubble talk reaches fever pitch across Silicon Valley. Speaking at WIRED's Big Interview conference in San Francisco today, the AMD CEO delivered her most emphatic defense yet of AI market fundamentals. "Emphatically, from my perspective, no," Su responded when asked directly if the tech industry is trapped in an AI bubble. She doubled down, calling such fears "somewhat overstated" - a bold stance given the growing skepticism around AI valuations. The timing couldn't be more critical for Su's company. While Nvidia commands a staggering $4.4 trillion market cap to AMD's $353 billion, Su has orchestrated one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds in recent memory. Since taking the helm in 2014, she's grown AMD's market value from just $2 billion to over $300 billion - a 150x increase that's now funding the company's biggest bet yet on AI infrastructure. That bet crystallized earlier this year when AMD struck what industry insiders are calling one of the most aggressive AI partnerships ever inked. The deal with OpenAI will see the ChatGPT maker deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD's Instinct GPUs over several years - enough computing power to train multiple frontier AI models simultaneously. But here's where it gets interesting: AMD essentially gave OpenAI a 10% stake in the company by allowing them to purchase 160 million shares at just one penny each. It's a move that signals Su's absolute confidence in AI demand sustainability, according to CNBC's reporting on the deal. The first gigawatt of that deployment rolls out in the second half of 2025, creating an immediate test case for Su's bubble dismissal. Yet AMD faces significant headwinds that could validate bubble concerns. The company is staring down an $800 million revenue hit from US export restrictions on its MI308 chips to China - a figure that represents meaningful lost business in a market where every dollar counts against Nvidia's dominance. Su confirmed during the WIRED discussion that AMD will pay the Trump administration's 15% tax to resume those China shipments, adding another cost layer to an already complex geopolitical chess game. The US government initially halted all MI308 sales to China before reopening application reviews this summer, creating regulatory uncertainty that bubble skeptics point to as evidence of unsustainable AI economics. What's remarkable is Su's apparent lack of concern about the competitive landscape that's causing nightmares for other chip executives. "When I look at the landscape, what keeps me up at night is 'How do we move faster when it comes to innovation?'" she told the WIRED audience. That's a striking contrast to the typical CEO response about market share battles or competitive threats from and , both of which are developing their own custom AI chips. Su's innovation-first mindset reflects a deeper conviction about AI's trajectory that goes well beyond current market dynamics. "As good as the models are today," she explained, "the next one will be better." It's this belief in continuous AI advancement that underpins her bubble dismissal - Su sees today's investments as foundational rather than speculative. The data center buildout driving much of current AI spending represents just the beginning of what Su expects will be decades of infrastructure expansion. Her confidence stems from AMD's position in what she views as AI's infancy stage, where the real growth hasn't even started yet. But Su's optimism faces a harsh reality check in 2025. The massive data center construction she's counting on must actually materialize, customers need to follow through on GPU orders, and AI applications must generate enough revenue to justify the infrastructure investments. If any part of that chain breaks, the bubble fears Su dismisses could prove prophetic.
