“Run Toward the Hardest Problems”: AMD CEO Lisa Su Challenges MIT Class of 2026 to Lead with Purpose and Courage

CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Class of 2026 was encouraged to embrace difficult challenges, act with purpose, and apply their talents to society’s most pressing problems during MIT’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony on May 28.

According to MIT News, the ceremony featured commencement speaker Lisa Su, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), who urged graduates to “run toward the hardest problems” as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

“Hard problems really teach you what you’re capable of,” Su told graduates gathered on Killian Court, according to MIT News.

Su, one of the technology industry’s most prominent executives, holds three degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, including bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Her ties to the Institute extend beyond academics; MIT’s Building 12, home to the MIT.nano facility, was named after her in 2022.

In her address, Su reflected on lessons learned during her years as an MIT student, emphasizing that the Institute taught her more than technical knowledge.

“MIT was teaching me something much bigger than semiconductor device physics,” Su said, according to MIT News. “What I realize now is that MIT was teaching me something much bigger than semiconductor device physics.”

She added that MIT gave her confidence not because she always knew the answers, but because she learned how to find them.

“MIT teaches you to think deeply,” Su said. “But it also teaches you to build. To test ideas. To keep going when the first experiment — or even the fifth experiment — doesn’t work.”

Su credited much of her development as a researcher to her work with Professor Dimitri Antoniadis, one of her doctoral advisors.

“That was where I really learned how to solve problems,” she said.

According to MIT News, Su also challenged graduates to think beyond technology itself and focus on the broader purpose of innovation, particularly as artificial intelligence reshapes industries and societies.

“The world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools,” Su said. “It needs people who know what to use them for. People with a sense of purpose. Judgment. Courage.”

While highlighting AI’s potential to accelerate advances in medicine, science, energy, and climate solutions, Su cautioned that technology alone cannot determine humanity’s future.

“For everything AI can do, AI cannot decide which problems are worth solving,” she said, according to MIT News. “It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcome.”

MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth also addressed graduates, emphasizing the Institute’s commitment to excellence, curiosity, and ethical responsibility.

According to MIT News, Kornbluth described curiosity as MIT’s “intellectual rocket fuel” and noted that curiosity-driven research has led to breakthroughs in fields ranging from medicine and agriculture to clean energy.

“At MIT, we know that curiosity-driven science is the path to new knowledge,” Kornbluth said. “The kind that spawns world-changing innovations.”

She also encouraged graduates to apply their talents responsibly.

“I hope we also hold, together, another core value: the commitment to always act ethically, with integrity, and with consideration for our fellow human beings,” Kornbluth said.

The ceremony celebrated a total of 3,982 graduates, including 1,165 undergraduate students and 2,817 graduate students, according to MIT News.

Student leaders also reflected on the responsibilities that accompany an MIT education. Graduate Student Council President Teddy Warner encouraged graduates to use collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking to address global challenges.

“As MIT graduates, we have the responsibility to work with others to generate, disseminate, and preserve knowledge to bear on the world’s greatest challenges,” Warner said, according to MIT News.

Meanwhile, undergraduate class president Heba Hussein highlighted the importance of caring for others and maintaining a sense of community beyond graduation.

“As we move forward, I urge you to continue to carry care,” Hussein said. “Care for our work, for each other, and for the people far beyond MIT whose lives are connected by what we choose to do.”

MIT News reported that despite a brief rain shower before the ceremony, conditions cleared in time for the commencement exercises, allowing graduates, families, faculty, and alumni to gather on Killian Court for one of the Institute’s most celebrated traditions.

The annual OneMIT Commencement ceremony serves as the Institute-wide celebration for graduates from MIT’s five schools and the Schwarzman College of Computing, while separate ceremonies are held for students to formally receive their degrees.

Throughout the ceremony, speakers returned to a common theme: that the knowledge and skills acquired at MIT carry with them a responsibility to serve society, pursue discovery, and address challenges that extend far beyond the campus.

As Su told the Class of 2026, the future will depend not only on technological innovation, but on the choices made by those entrusted to lead it.

“These are actually our responsibilities,” she said. “And they matter more now than ever.”