AMD CEO Lisa Su says AI isn't a bubble and predicts 5 billion users by 2031

[DragonSlayer101]

Not so fast: With tech stocks soaring and the AI sector attracting billions in speculative investment, many industry observers and market analysts have warned of a possible bubble, drawing eerie parallels to the dot-com craze of the 90s. AMD CEO Lisa Su, however, disagrees.

Speaking to Bloomberg News on the sidelines of CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Su insisted that, despite all the doomsday predictions, AI is the real deal – not just hype that will fade within a year or two.

She noted that millions of people are already using AI for various purposes, and adoption rates are expected to accelerate rapidly. Su predicted that the number of active AI users worldwide could exceed five billion within the next five years.

Su also dismissed concerns that large-scale AI deployment would result in millions of job losses, noting that AMD has not slowed its hiring pace despite embracing AI, unlike many other tech companies. Speaking to CNBC, she said AMD is actually hiring "lots of people" across various positions – "we're hiring people … who are AI-forward."

Crediting AI with boosting productivity within the company, Su emphasized that the technology is "not replacing people," as some observers and activists fear. Instead, AI is augmenting productivity, enabling AMD's engineering and marketing teams to develop and release products faster than ever before.

The AI boom has created massive demand for cutting-edge hardware, and companies like Nvidia and AMD are reaping the benefits. While Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries, AMD has also experienced impressive growth in its AI hardware business in recent years.

With the AI sector continuing its rapid expansion, Su said she expects demand to reach 10 yottaflops of computing power over the next several years, presenting a huge opportunity for companies like AMD.

At CES 2026, AMD showcased its CDNA 6-based Instinct MI500-series AI accelerators, claiming up to 1,000× more compute performance compared to the MI300X lineup launched in 2023. While the MI500 is scheduled for release in 2027, the company is preparing to roll out the Instinct MI450 series, based on the CDNA 5 architecture, later this year.

On the consumer side, AMD unveiled new Ryzen AI 400 "Gorgon Point" and Ryzen AI Max+ "Strix Halo" processors for laptops and small-form desktops, alongside the Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 9850X3D for desktop gaming rigs.

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AMD CEO Lisa Su says AI isn't a bubble and predicts 5 billion users by 2031

 

[wiyosaya]

AMD CEO Lisa Su says AI isn't a bubble and predicts 5 billion users addicts by 2031.

FTFY Dr. Su.

 

[PXAbstraction]

"AMD CEO Lisa Su says AI isn't a bubble because she really wants them buying more AMD GPUs."

 

[MasterAce]

AI is here to stay but the investment bubble is also real. Just like the .com boom

 

[winjer]

Another snake oil salesman...
...or women.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

AMD is starting to get a good taste of the the AI money, they want it to continue.

What happens when all this ends? What will be the next thing to push costs up and keep revenue up for the shareholders? Another pandemic?

 

[NumberNine]

Lisa runs a company that sells computer chips and her job is also to say words that make people buy more of them. But yeah, put a sock in it and just keep making those X3Ds because I don't buy words.

 

[Abaidor]

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

 

[Kirby1]

Many small companies will fail just like with the .com bubble, but the companies selling chips have nothing to worry about. Just like with the .com era, there will be a lot of companies that get caught up in the hype and invest in some niche AI thing that doesn't really work out and ultimately fail, but for the chip companies; they are selling shovels in a gold rush. Doesn't matter to them if people strike gold or not, they're still going to need the shovels.

If even 20% of the things people want from AI beyond just helpful chatbots come into play in the next decade, the AI revolution will be huge. Like it or not, we're still at the beginning of all this.

 

[AnilD]

Five billion AI users sounds insane until you realize Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Meta are all trying to shove it into literally every device and app you touch.

At that point "user" just means someone who opened a settings menu once.

 

[Benses]

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

Sure whatever you say random internet guy.

 

[3volv3d]

5 billion users means nothing unless that's 5 billion people a d a subscription for something and the theory is, they haven't figured out how to make any real money from this?

 

[Benses]

Many small companies will fail just like with the .com bubble, but the companies selling chips have nothing to worry about. Just like with the .com era, there will be a lot of companies that get caught up in the hype and invest in some niche AI thing that doesn't really work out and ultimately fail, but for the chip companies; they are selling shovels in a gold rush. Doesn't matter to them if people strike gold or not, they're still going to need the shovels.

If even 20% of the things people want from AI beyond just helpful chatbots come into play in the next decade, the AI revolution will be huge. Like it or not, we're still at the beginning of all this.

Yes AI is here to stay but like these sociopaths CEOs say. Big and small companies will fall for this just like .com. Remember Cisco and Nortel?

 

[themastergoose]

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

I am the owner of a software development company in the UK. We are 14 years old now as a company, and in the last few years our entire advertising message has been "Technology solutions built by humans, for humans.

We're busier than ever offering real technical skills and many years of experience, rather than having an AI led approach to software development our customers keep saying they don't want.

 

[NumberNine]

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

Even if human being on the planet could not breathe oxygen or wipe themselves without a neural network to show them how, it would not be enough to support current speculation.

Two things are true: This bubble will pop, and people will continue using inferrence models long after.

AI has not yet been invented. You are playing with a token-based inference tool built upon a neural network, a large language model, and I can assure you it has never had a thought that you didn't generate yourself.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Another snake oil salesman...
...or women.

Remember that her cousin is Leather Jacket Man himself.

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

You are not using AI. You are using a LLM with a token. Furthermore, you are not paying anywhere near what it takes to run this stuff, so unless you plan on $100 per prompt use of your AI tool, it's not going to be that huge game changer either.

"AI" is as much of a revolutionary productivity tool as blockchains, NFTs, ece have been. This $5 billion users number is thrown around because you need that many people paying $30+ a month just ot maintain current output, which is obviously unsustainable.

AMD is starting to get a good taste of the the AI money, they want it to continue.

What happens when all this ends? What will be the next thing to push costs up and keep revenue up for the shareholders? Another pandemic?

Someone here once said it would be Quantum computing processors. I think that's a pretty safe bet.

 

[Kashim]

Who are these people that keep insisting there's no AI bubble? There are over 50,000 AI companies globally and almost all of them are investing heavily in AI hardware. So if there's no bubble, then most of them will survive according to these people. No, in the end there will be a handful or less that actually survive. A bubble doesn't mean every single one of them will collapse, just 99.99% of them.

Of course the CEO of AMD, Intel, nVidia, etc. all insist there's no bubble. Obviously they're all going to say there's no bubble, because they stand to profit from it. This is like asking the king of vampires if there's a problem with people's blood getting sucked out, or asking the leader of cannibals if there's a problem with people getting eaten. I mean, what would you have the CEO of AMD say? "Yes, there's a bubble, please don't buy our hardware or you'll go bankrupt."

Anyway, the math here is pretty simple. Most of these companies will go belly up and it's not a matter of _IF_ but rather _WHEN_ it will happen. People forget it wasn't long ago when we had countless search engines and e-mail providers. How many search engines and e-mail services are there now that people actually use? Same thing will happen with AI. There will be a handful that succeed mostly because they will have very heavy backers with nearly unlimited funds, the rest will fall and some will limp along a while longer, but the end result will be the same.

 

[Kashim]

At that point "user" just means someone who opened a settings menu once.

It's not even that. If you just buy a phone or laptop with an "AI" label on it, you're automatically counted as an AI user. Even if you never use that particular feature you already paid for it because it's included in the price of the product whether you want it or not.

 

[Watzupken]

There is a difference between users and paid users. It's been at least 3 to 4years since they started selling AI as the silver bullet that can do miracles, but I don't see it happening. It's just causing shortages in natural resources, power and water everywhere. Sounds more destructive and wasteful instead. Now it's causing hardware prices to increase and people are encouraged to use outdated or low RAM and storage devices to run software that are infested with AI features that not everyone wants. It's not sustainable, much less till 2031. It's just some number plucked from the air to give it a fictitious potential.

 

[redgarl]

So funny to see all the PCMRs losing their mind over what is the next industrial revolution just because RAM and Storage cost augmented due to the demand...

If you watched AMD CES presentation, then you have a glimpse why AI is a major breakthrough in a lot of fields. For once, we got to see real world applications.

I am the owner of a software development company in the UK. We are 14 years old now as a company, and in the last few years our entire advertising message has been "Technology solutions built by humans, for humans.

We're busier than ever offering real technical skills and many years of experience, rather than having an AI led approach to software development our customers keep saying they don't want.

Anyone still denying the technology in their safespaces will be left behind.

 

[AlexIL]

For god's sake stopp dreaming of the "AI" bubble bursting......some of us use it daily and our productivity has skyrocketed - there is n ogoing back. It is real, it is evolving, we are paying and will keep paying for it and it is not a game. It is a revolution. The sooner you realize it the safer your future employment will be.

I love fairytales too

 

[redgarl]

Who are these people that keep insisting there's no AI bubble? There are over 50,000 AI companies globally and almost all of them are investing heavily in AI hardware. So if there's no bubble, then most of them will survive according to these people.

Maybe you are talking about 99% of the companies, but these companies don't represent even 20% of the AI economy. The money is in the hands of the top 100 most valuable semiconductor and tech companies.

We are not back in 2008 when the value of the debt of loans were higher than the Asset values. You are talking about the companies which have the most important level of cashflows. It is not even comparable.

Matter of fact, the technology will be there to stay. Anyone believing the contrary is actually in pure denial. What is happening with the memory and storage shortage should be proof enough.

 

[redgarl]

I love fairytales too

What an argument...

 

[SRB]

It's interesting to see the comments....I don't think I'll ever understand how so many people can take such a nebulous technology like AI and distill it down to "succeeds beyond your wildest dreams" and "crash and burn in a deep hole". Just like the internet itself, this AI is being used for exploring new ideas for medical advances to some of the best "cats in spacesuits" images I've ever seen.

Chances are, it will be somewhere in between. AI has the ability to do some amazing thing, it's also given out some of the stupidest ideas that we would never have dreamed up (anyone remember rat poison as an ingredient in a dish?).

I also can foresee the possibility that it could do just as much damage to society as it does help. I can see people relying on AI and agents to the point that people will no longer be able to do simple things due to never learning them, since they never had to do them. It's amazing how many younger people think history started 10 years ago, and all stored knowledge is contained in TicTok.

I have no idea where things are going to go, but I do know It won't be a smooth as everyone thinks, nor as useless as others say.

 

[opckieran]

Yes AI is here to stay but like these sociopaths CEOs say. Big and small companies will fall for this just like .com. Remember Cisco and Nortel?

Cisco is currently the largest player in the enterprise network market...