The chief executive of chipmaker AMD believes that AI giants doubling down on the infrastructure buildout are making the right call.
In a new CNBC interview, Lisa Su says the speed of the AI cycle has forced the industry to reset expectations, with demand moving far faster than analysts anticipated.
She says AI is now past the stage of experimentation and curiosity, with enterprises finally seeing tangible productivity gains.
“I think we started a couple of years ago. We thought the AI accelerator TAM (total addressable market) might be $300 billion. And that sounded like a really big number. And then each year, we took it up. And now when we take a step back, we see this massive opportunity, really over a trillion-dollar overall market as we get through 2030…
If I tell you what we’ve seen in the last 12 months, we’ve seen every one of our largest customers say, ‘We can see the inflection point now, Lisa.’ Like, we can see demand is accelerating because people are now starting to get real productivity out of the AI use cases.”
She says the largest hyperscalers are responding by lifting capital-expenditure plans again, backed by balance sheets built for long, multi-year infrastructure cycles.
“And we have all of the largest hyperscalers in the world. They’re investing more in CapEx because they can see the return on the other side of it.”
Su also pushes back on the idea that the AI race is an overextended gamble, arguing that high compute intensity and fast model cycles justify deep investment from the sector.
“I don’t think it’s a big gamble. I think it’s the right gamble. And the way I would say it… more computing and more investments equate to a faster pace of innovation.”
She adds that while the exact timing of returns will vary, the companies driving the buildout are disciplined operators making long-duration decisions.
“Now, exactly timing of ROI, if you’re talking about, is it 12 months or 24 months? I think that’s where it becomes a little fuzzier. But… our largest customers are extremely disciplined companies, and they have the balance sheets to invest.”
Last week, Meta said that it is committing over $600 billion in the US by 2028 to fuel the AI push in the country. Also, earlier this month, OpenAI deepened ties with Amazon after inking a $38 billion AI infrastructure deal.
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