By Sagar Mankar 
AMD CEO Lisa Su has joined the billionaires club.
According to Forbes, Su now has a net worth of over $1.1 billion, making her the 26th self-made woman billionaire in the US.
This milestone comes on the back of AMD’s incredible stock price rise over the last few years under Su’s leadership.
But how did the leader of AMD reach such lofty financial heights?
Highlights:
- AMD CEO Lisa Su is the newest female self-made billionaire thanks to AMD’s stock price rise under her leadership. Her net worth is estimated at $1.1 billion.
- Most of Su’s wealth comes from her sizable ownership of AMD shares granted as CEO compensation. She owns around 4 million shares worth over $700 million.
- However, rival Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is worth over $60 billion – more than 50X Su’s fortune – highlighting the massive wealth gap at the top.
How Did Lisa Su Make Her Money?
The answer lies in Su’s substantial share-holdings in AMD stock.
As CEO, a significant portion of her compensation comes in the form of company shares instead of cash salary.
Since taking over leadership of AMD in 2014, Su has accumulated roughly 4 million shares, currently valued at around $700 million.
Her billionaire status is built on AMD’s incredible stock market run during her leadership.
AMD’s share price has skyrocketed from under $2 in 2016 to over $170 recently(NASDAQ).
She has sold around $400 million worth of stock since 2016.
But even after selling those chunks of stock, her remaining stake is still worth nine figures over $700 million at current valuations.
An Ingenious CEO Compensation Structure
When Su became CEO, AMD was struggling and rumored to be on the brink of bankruptcy.
As a result, she was paid less salary than the outgoing CEO Rory Read.
To make up for the lower cash compensation, Su received larger stock awards.
This proved to be a stroke of genius.
With her massive share grants, Su was heavily incentivized to increase AMD’s stock price.
The rumored “turnaround queen” got to work revitalizing the company’s fortunes based on strategic product development like the breakthrough Zen CPU architecture.
Under Su’s leadership, AMD’s revenue and market share has soared to record levels.
The company’s market capitalization now exceeds arch-rival Intel’s for the first time in history.
This amazing performance has sent AMD’s stock price skyrocketing over 1700% during Su’s reign as CEO.
No wonder her net worth recently crossed the magic $1 billion threshold.
Still Far Behind Her Rival’s Billions
Although Lisa Su is the newest member of the billionaire’s club, her estimated $1.1 billion net worth pales in comparison to rival Jensen Huang of Nvidia.
The Nvidia CEO was already worth over $40 billion in late 2021.
His current net worth sits at an astonishing $60+ billion thanks to surging valuations of his substantial stake in Nvidia.
Huang’s billions stem from a similar CEO compensation formula as Su – heavy reliance on stock instead of cash.
But his longer tenure at Nvidia since co-founding the company, its stronger position in 2014, and its meteoric rise in valuation gave Huang a massive head start on billionaire status.
Nevertheless, Su’s achievement of amassing a 10-figure personal fortune solely through AMD stock growth remains mightily impressive.
She managed to turn around a struggling company and line her own pockets with untold riches in the process.
In 2022, AMD acquired Xilinx at $50 billion to expand beyond its purview of CPUs and GPUs with a large portfolio of reprogrammable chips (FPGAs) and AI.
Source – Forbes
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