What is Lisa Su’s IQ?
The checkable record: a 1994 MIT thesis on silicon-on-insulator transistors, the 2021 IEEE Noyce Medal and AMD’s top job since October 2014. The missing piece is a test score.
No IQ test result has been published for Dr. Lisa Su, and no page found for this profile states a number for her IQ. What is documented is an MIT doctorate in electrical engineering (1994), a research and management career at Texas Instruments, IBM, Freescale and AMD, and election to the National Academy of Engineering.
Lisa Su’s estimated IQ
- Bachelor’s (class of 1990), master’s (1991) and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, per MIT News; the Ph.D. thesis, “Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs,” is catalogued in MIT’s DSpace repository with Dimitri A. Antoniadis and James E. Chung as advisors.
- Nearly two decades of semiconductor research and management before AMD: member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments (1994), then IBM from 1995, where she was vice president of the semiconductor research and development center by 2006, then Freescale Semiconductor from June 2007.
- More than 40 published technical articles, as AMD counted in its October 2014 announcement that she had been appointed president and chief executive officer.
- Honors from engineering and scholarly bodies: IEEE Fellow (2009), election to the National Academy of Engineering (2018), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020) and the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2021), which she was the first woman to receive.
- Twelve years as AMD’s chief executive as of October 2026: appointed president and CEO on October 8, 2014, chair since February 2022.
No IQ, SAT or ACT score has been published for Lisa Su, so this range is inferred from a degree, a research record and peer-elected honors, none of which converts to a number. Leading a company reflects teams, markets and timing as well as ability, so the career counts for less here than the doctorate and the engineering honors.
- Born
- November 7, 1969, Tainan, Taiwan
- Education
- Bronx High School of Science (1986); MIT bachelor’s (class of 1990), master’s (1991) and Ph.D. (1994), all in electrical engineering
- Doctoral thesis
- “Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs,” MIT, 1994; advisors Dimitri A. Antoniadis and James E. Chung
- Career
- Texas Instruments (1994), IBM (from 1995), Freescale Semiconductor (from 2007), AMD (from January 2012)
- Role as of October 2026
- Chair and CEO of AMD; CEO since October 8, 2014, chair since February 2022
- Honors
- IEEE Fellow (2009); National Academy of Engineering (2018); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020); IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2021)
- Publications
- More than 40 technical articles, per AMD’s October 2014 announcement
- Documented IQ test
- None on record; no circulating figure found
What an IQ of 145–160 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Lisa Su is
Dr. Lisa Su was born on November 7, 1969, in Tainan, Taiwan, and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in New York City in 1986, according to Wikipedia. She began at MIT that fall. MIT lists her as Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering. Her 1994 thesis, “Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs,” is catalogued in MIT’s DSpace repository with Dimitri A. Antoniadis and James E. Chung as advisors.
She joined Texas Instruments as a member of the technical staff in 1994 and moved to IBM in February 1995 as a research staff member specializing in device physics. MIT Technology Review reported in 2006 that she worked at IBM on a project to replace aluminum interconnects with faster copper ones, and that she was by then vice president of the semiconductor research and development center. AMD counts 13 years at IBM. She joined Freescale Semiconductor in June 2007.
At Freescale she became senior vice president and general manager of networking and multimedia. Su joined AMD in January 2012 as senior vice president and general manager. On October 8, 2014, AMD’s board appointed her president and chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately, and in February 2022 she became chair. As of October 2026 the Semiconductor Industry Association’s biography lists her as chair and CEO of AMD and as the association’s 2026 chair.
The honors on record come from engineering and scholarly bodies. IEEE named her a Fellow in 2009. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020, and in 2021 she received the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal. TIME named her its 2024 CEO of the Year. In 2022 MIT named Building 12, which houses MIT.nano, in her honor. Lisa Su’s estimated IQ here, 145–160, is inferred from that record and from nothing measured.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
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Lisa Su: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1969Born November 7 in Tainan, Taiwan.
- 1986Graduates from the Bronx High School of Science in New York City and begins at MIT that fall.
- 1990–1991Completes bachelor’s (class of 1990) and master’s (1991) degrees in electrical engineering at MIT.
- 1994–1995Receives her MIT doctorate with a thesis on silicon-on-insulator MOSFETs; works at Texas Instruments, then joins IBM in 1995.
- 2007–2009Joins Freescale Semiconductor in June 2007 after IBM, where she had been vice president of the semiconductor research and development center; named an IEEE Fellow in 2009.
- 2012Joins AMD in January as senior vice president and general manager.
- 2014Appointed AMD president and chief executive officer on October 8, effective immediately.
- 2018Elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
- 2021Receives the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, the first woman to do so.
- 2022Becomes chair of AMD in February; MIT names Building 12, home of MIT.nano, in her honor.
Why no figure circulates
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Lisa Su’s IQ is not known: no IQ test result for her has been published anywhere this profile could find. Searches for “Lisa Su IQ score” and “is Lisa Su a genius” return her biographies and, oddly, pages about Lisa Simpson, a cartoon character whose scores belong to someone else. For how a number can attach to a name with no test behind it, see where celebrity IQ numbers come from. Here there is no figure to trace.
What stands in place of a score is a degree and a research record. MIT lists her as Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, and its repository holds her thesis on silicon-on-insulator transistors. A completed doctorate is a checkable credential, but it is not a score. The site’s piece on the average IQ of MIT, Oxford and Yale students covers what scores at such schools do and do not imply.
Dr. Lisa Su’s estimated IQ here, 145–160, rests on a completed doctorate, as do the ranges for Dario Amodei and Demis Hassabis, both 145–160 on this site. Jensen Huang, who also leads a chip company, has a 150–165 range built on a Stanford master’s degree and a founder’s career. The ranges overlap, but each rests on a different record, none comes from a test, and they are not a ranking.
Is Lisa Su a genius? The record shows an engineer with a doctorate whose peers elected her to the National Academy of Engineering. Whether that adds up to genius-level ability depends on a definition and a measurement, and no measurement exists for her. For what a score near the middle of this range would mean, see an IQ of 150; the number here is an inference, not a result.
How we read a number →Checked: Wikipedia (no mention of IQ), AMD’s 2014 appointment release, MIT News, MIT’s DSpace record, MIT Technology Review (2006) and the Semiconductor Industry Association biography, none of which gives a test score. Web searches for “Lisa Su IQ score,” “dr lisa su iq” and “is Lisa Su a genius” returned her biographies and unrelated pages about Lisa Simpson, a cartoon character. No aggregator page with a number for her was found.
States the board “has appointed Dr. Lisa Su as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately,” and gives her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, 13 years at IBM, a prior post as a member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments, IEEE Fellow status in 2009 and more than 40 published technical articles.
The ten most recent releases are dated from July 23 to October 27, 2026, and none of their titles announces a leadership change. Used only to support the “as of October 2026” status line, alongside the SIA biography.
Catalog record: thesis (Ph.D.), MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994; advisors Dimitri A. Antoniadis and James E. Chung; bibliographical references on leaves 200–213. No abstract on the record.
Gives her class years (’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94) and bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from MIT; calls her chair and CEO of AMD, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and TIME’s 2024 CEO of the Year; says MIT named Building 12, home of MIT.nano, in her honor in 2022.
Repeats ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94; says her doctoral research focused on silicon-on-insulator technology, that she spent 13 years at IBM, that she has published more than 40 technical articles and that IEEE named her a Fellow in 2009.
MIT alumni-magazine profile: as a doctoral candidate she “was one of the first researchers to look into silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology”; a year at Texas Instruments, then IBM in 1995; at IBM she was assigned to a project on replacing aluminum interconnects with copper ones; by 2006 vice president of the semiconductor research and development center. Its subtitle gives her bachelor’s year as 1991, one year later than MIT News; this profile follows MIT News.
SIA lists her as “Chair and CEO” of AMD and “2026 SIA Chair,” IEEE Fellow in 2009, earlier roles at Texas Instruments, IBM and Freescale. Business Roundtable and The Conference Board list election to the National Academy of Engineering (2018), election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020), the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2021) and her Freescale title, senior vice president and general manager of networking and multimedia.
Birth date and place; Bronx High School of Science, graduating 1986; began at MIT in fall 1986; IBM from February 1995 as a research staff member in device physics; Freescale in June 2007; AMD in January 2012; chair in February 2022. The medal page lists Lisa Su as the 2021 recipient and the first female recipient. The Lisa Su article does not mention IQ.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Lisa Su, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
No page was found that states a specific number for Lisa Su’s IQ. Web searches combining “Lisa Su” with “IQ,” “IQ score,” “dr lisa su iq” and “is Lisa Su a genius” returned her Wikipedia article and career biographies; the IQ-phrased results also included pages about Lisa Simpson, a cartoon character, which are unrelated.
No IQ test result for Lisa Su has been published, and no page found states a number for one. The biographies read for this profile, from AMD, MIT, the Semiconductor Industry Association and Wikipedia, list degrees, jobs and honors; none gives an IQ or any other test score. Wikipedia’s article on her does not mention IQ at all. No celebrity-IQ aggregator or “smartest CEOs” list with a Lisa Su entry turned up in the searches, so there is no circulating figure on this page to audit.
With no stated figure to weigh against it, the only numbers on this page are the ends of this site’s own range, 145 and 160. The 15-point width reflects a record that is strong and documented but contains no test.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Lisa Su — frequently asked
What is Lisa Su’s IQ?
Lisa Su’s IQ is unknown: no IQ test result has been published for her, and no page found for this profile states a number. This site’s estimate, 145–160, is inferred from her MIT doctorate in electrical engineering (1994), her career at Texas Instruments, IBM, Freescale and AMD, and her peer-elected honors, not from any test.
Did Lisa Su take an IQ test, and is there a Lisa Su IQ score on record?
No score is on record. None of the biographies checked, from AMD, MIT, the Semiconductor Industry Association and Wikipedia, mentions an IQ test or gives any test result for her. Searches for a Lisa Su IQ score also return unrelated pages about Lisa Simpson, a cartoon character, so any number attributed to the AMD chief executive would be unsourced.
Is Lisa Su a genius?
The record shows an engineer with a completed MIT doctorate, a 1994 thesis on silicon-on-insulator transistors, and election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018. “Genius” is a label, not a measurement, and no test result exists for her, so this site describes her as a scientist-executive with a documented record rather than assigning the word.
What did Lisa Su study at MIT?
Electrical engineering at every level. MIT lists her as Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, meaning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Her 1994 doctoral thesis, “Extreme-submicrometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs,” names Dimitri A. Antoniadis and James E. Chung as advisors in MIT’s DSpace repository.
How did Lisa Su become AMD’s CEO?
After work at Texas Instruments, IBM and Freescale Semiconductor, she joined AMD in January 2012 as senior vice president and general manager. AMD’s board appointed her president and chief executive officer on October 8, 2014, and she became chair in February 2022. As of October 2026 she is listed as chair and CEO.
What honors has Lisa Su received for her engineering work?
IEEE named her a Fellow in 2009. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020, and in 2021 she received the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, the first woman to do so. These are peer honors for engineering contribution, not measures of IQ.
Does Lisa Su’s estimated IQ differ from Dario Amodei’s or Demis Hassabis’s?
This site gives all three the same range, 145–160, because each profile rests on a completed doctorate and a documented career. The match reflects similar kinds of record, not a measured result: none of the three profiles rests on a published IQ test, and the ranges are not a ranking.
How does my IQ compare with Lisa Su?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other business & tech profiles, starting with Steve Jobs.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More business & tech profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by Anderseidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph of Satya Nadella by Brian Smale and Microsoft (August 31, 2017), CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and with background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by TechCrunch (TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco, September 20, 2023), CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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