Where AMD is heading, what's the future, what's the vision to all of us.
AMD's focus is on allowing computing to make a difference in people's lives. And what we focus on is high performance computing. AMD powers the number one and the number two supercomputer in the world.
What you are intending to talk to us in April in Long Beach, California.
The impact of technology on delivering AI capabilities, what AI can do, and how we can come together as an industry to supply what you'll hear me call the insatiable computing demand. We will always and should always have skepticism of new technologies because it has to prove itself, and we are on the early arc, the early apex of this massive explosion of AI-driven new processes, new applications, so there should be skepticism.
Good afternoon everyone. I'm Shashi Topati. I'm here with Mark Papermaster, the EVP and the CTO of the great company AMD. We are here to talk about the road to IIT 2026 conference. But I want to have this conversation with you, Mark, way beyond that. You have so much vision, so much insight, not just for the people attending the conference. I think everyone who is going to listen will benefit from what we are going to talk today. Mark, I'm a venture capitalist, I'm also the chair of the Global Indian Institute of Technology 2026 conference, and it's my absolute pleasure to have you here. Before we start, Mark, you're quite famous, but I would love to learn a little bit more about you, who Mark is, share a little bit more about AMD and what kind of vision you are setting that the audience can benefit from learning from Mark.
Thank you, Shashi. First of all, thanks for inviting me to speak and keynote at IIT 2026. I'm super excited about it and can't wait. And I love that we have a chance to talk here in advance. Let me start just by describing a little of my history in the industry. I have been extremely fortunate because I started in technology right at an inflection point, and that inflection point was the introduction of the PC. So think about it. Computers and computing was some distant force that was always behind a glass wall in some computer center. Not that we don't still have major data centers that are behind the wall, but computing wasn't personal to the rest of us. None of us could really touch and feel how computing could affect our lives. And the PC changed that. It brought computing into our lives. And so we now, of course, don't even think about content creation, creating presentations at work, managing your photo albums at home, driving productivity programs that you might write. All of that we now are accustomed to having that be very personal. And of course then it led to the internet coming out and connecting all of us with those computation devices. Mobile, what a fantastic transition that was where then it wasn't even with us personally, that personal computing could be in your pocket and by the way it had a photo and a video camera all embedded in it. So that changed the nature of how we deal with computing. And then it brings us up to the current era, Shashi, AI. The most transformative technology in the four plus decades I've had in the industry. So I've been fortunate to traverse these inflection points coming up to this most exciting time. And I've been fortunate to work at great companies. I was with IBM in computer development for 25 years. I was able to drive the development of IBM's technology. I had great opportunities at Apple working for Steve Jobs driving the iPhone and the iPod development there. Networking with Cisco, and then the last 14 years in the role as CTO driving our research and development activities at AMD. It's been incredibly exciting, and never have I been more optimistic about the future role that technology can play in our lives.
Mark, I'm so happy that you're coming to speak and share your insight because as you pointed out, you have been part of those inflections. Who else can derive all the learnings from all those inflection points? And then as you pointed out, AI is going to change pretty much everyone's life. If you're not part of the journey, better get on the journey because it will impact you one way or another whether you want it or not. But even before we head there, Mark, share a little bit about you that most professionals may not know about. Tell us about married kids, what you like to do, what makes you happy beyond work.
Well, I tell you, I engross so much of my work time that it's consuming. In the industry I'm in of creating leading edge chips, when you're working, which is a lot, it's very consuming. It takes all of your energies. So I like nothing more than maximizing my weekend time. Of course I have some meetings or some work I get done on various weekends. But what I try to do the bulk of my career is prioritize family time. It's the zen moment in my life to spend time with my wife. We have three kids. They're now grown, and they're all married. They've moved out of the house. We have three grandchildren. So I feel very fortunate. So my simple answer is family is what makes my life complete. And we just like doing things together, playing sports, watching movies together, being out in the water. We're very much a family that loves water. So I really find that in today's world, it's so fast-paced. All of us need to focus on our passion for our careers but equally on what makes you happy and at peace. It's tough to find the balance, and I've been fortunate to do so over my years.
Mark, I mean that's a very important point. I think most business professionals are struggling with that thinking that at one stage the technology is moving with so much pace, how much do we do and we have limited time, and on top we have family which by the way makes us happy. So I'm so happy to hear that someone like you with that stature still has time to balance it out and give time to family and kids. So it's so good to hear. Mark, I also have been reading a lot lately about AMD, especially after you coming to speak, but the more I read about AMD, I saw the CNBC news anchor came and filmed the whole center and all the investment you're making in AI. You being the CTO and EVP at AMD, share with us where AMD is heading, what's the future, what's the vision to all of us.
AMD's focus is on allowing computing to make a difference in people's lives. And what we focus on is high performance computing. Computing that can help solve some of the world's toughest problems. That starts with supercomputers. AMD powers the number one and the number two supercomputer in the world, but it moves right into the data center where you might be running CPU workloads on a cloud, now GPU workloads. We've got a very competitive GPU for running the most demanding AI workloads, right down into what's called the edge, the applications that are more finely tuned. They might be industrial robotics, what's running your airplane, your autonomous vehicle that you're driving, embedded devices. We have a deep portfolio there as well as PCs and gaming. In all of those markets, our ability to bring transformative high performance technology that's energy efficient and how it runs, and now all of it AI accelerated, is how we strive to make a difference in people's lives, making the democratization of the ability to get at high performance computing.
Amazing. Mark, one thing also I saw in your profile, Mark, that you are the executive responsible or sponsor for the India operation. And when we spoke first time, Mark, we briefly talked about IIT, Indian Institute of Technology. And while IIT has created some wonderful talent, some in the US may not know, but when I talked, to my surprise in a pleasant way, you knew about IIT, you knew about Indian contribution in the economy. Tell us more about your role on IIT, kind of looking into Indian operation, and how you knew about IIT, but also what made you think about even coming to speak at a global Indian institute of technology. It must have something gone in your brain to accept our proposal.
Shashi, we are a global company and India makes up a very central part of what we do at AMD, and it didn't always used to be that way. When I joined 14 years ago, when Lisa Su joined the company, India was a very small part of the overall operations. But I realized right away that it was such a growing economy and that the talent in India was so strong that we needed to strengthen its role in the company. In the time that I have been here, we've grown our India population of engineering from under 1,000 to over 10,000. It's grown 10x, and it really spans everything that we do in the company. It's an integral part of our development operations and our business operations. And IIT, to be honest, we're now a top company, we're a growing company, we're always in the list of top performing companies, but when you go back 14 years ago, we had to transform ourselves to become that company. In India, the engineers were very hungry to help fuel that growth, and at that time I would say we were unknown at IITs in India. But as we started to grow, the interest rose. I was invited to speak at IIT in Mumbai, and I remember the auditorium just being filled, and I was asked the most amazing questions. I said, how could these students be so steeped in the technology that we work on for chip development, for high performance computing and AI? But they were amazing. And what we've done in the last years since then, that was probably five or six years ago, we've really increased our relationship with IITs across India. We partner with them, we do co-research, we have AI development access to them so they can get on our computing capabilities and develop new approaches, and we hire from IIT. So it's really been an expanded relationship and one that we're very happy about. But I do sponsor India, and I have since I joined the company, for all the reasons I just said. It was very clear to me 14 years ago that they would need to be a very important part of the global company which we are.
Excellent. Thank you, Mark. And I know you are coming in April in Long Beach to talk about your vision about AI and industry and where we are heading and the amount of change AI is going to bring. Do you want to share with us a little bit, not the whole thing, but a glimpse of what you're intending to talk to us in April in Long Beach, California?
