Mira Murati and Lisa Su: Two Female Trajectories That Are Actually Shifting Power Dynamics in Artificial Intelligence
In the artificial intelligence economy, influence is not a matter of image, but of the capacity to act on deep infrastructures. It is measured by the ability to modify the pace of innovation, to redefine technical standards, to reduce critical dependencies, or to direct the flows of research and capital. The trajectories of Mira Murati and Lisa Su are particularly enlightening. They combine two rarely united dimensions: symbolic power that inspires an entire generation and a capacity, to varying degrees, to act on the very foundations of the technological system.
Mira Murati, From Product Figure to Building Scientific Power
The role played by Mira Murati in the launch of ChatGPT transformed artificial intelligence into a global phenomenon. This sequence granted her exceptional reputational capital, but the real question begins after OpenAI. With Thinking Machines Lab, she is attempting a more ambitious move: to intervene not on uses, but on the conditions of knowledge production. Raising two billion dollars without a product or business model is not just a financial feat. It is proof that AI research is becoming a strategic asset in itself and that certain profiles can shift investment logic toward long-term scientific thinking.
The launch of Tinker, designed to simplify the training and adaptation of models from open-source building blocks, opens a perspective that goes beyond technical performance. If the promise of achieving very high precision results with a fraction of the data is confirmed at scale, the impact would be systemic: lowering experimental costs, rebalancing between universities and Big Tech, accelerating research. At this stage, Mira Murati’s influence is therefore twofold. It is already real on the symbolic and scientific level, as it modifies the way venture capital perceives fundamental research. It is emerging on the structural level, as her power will depend on the diffusion of her tools and their ability to become standards.
Her influence plays out in the long term: will she manage to transform the ecosystem or will she remain an exceptional figure emerging from the system she seeks to rebalance?
Lisa Su, and the Infrastructures of the Real World
Lisa Su’s trajectory belongs to a different temporality, that of measurable industrial transformation. When she took over as CEO of AMD in 2014, the company was marginalized. Ten years later, it has become a central player in the design of high-performance processors capable of powering the most demanding generative AI models. In a sector where compute has become the strategic resource par excellence, this transformation represents a real shift in the balance of power.
The contract signed with OpenAI, the spectacular increase in the company’s value, and the arrival of new generations of chips do not belong to an inspirational narrative, but to an observable modification of market equilibrium. By introducing competition against Nvidia, Lisa Su acts directly on one of the major bottlenecks of contemporary AI: the concentration of computing power. Her influence is therefore structural, as it reduces a critical dependency for the entire ecosystem.
She is not just changing the trajectory of a company, she is modifying the material conditions of global innovation.
Two Complementary Forms of Power
Comparing Mira Murati and Lisa Su amounts to observing two levels of power in artificial intelligence. One acts on the cognitive architectures of systems, the other on the physical infrastructure that makes them possible. One works to make AI more intelligible, modular, and accessible to research, the other to increase computing power and diversify the compute offering. Together, they cover two of the three pillars of the AI value chain: models and compute.
This complementarity is essential. It shows that influence is no longer located solely in visible platforms, but in the deep layers of the system, where technological trajectories are decided.
An Inspiration Based on Mastery of Complex Systems
The inspiring nature of these trajectories does not lie in their singularity, but in the nature of their legitimacy. Both are engineers by training, both have built their authority in technical mastery and over time. In a universe long dominated by charismatic figures from product or marketing, their leadership rests on the understanding of complex systems and on the ability to orchestrate elite scientific teams.
For the new generation, the message is decisive. Power in AI is not located solely in the creation of visible startups, but in access to deeptech infrastructures, laboratories, and industries that determine the pace of progress.
Still Exceptional Influence, But Already Structural
The fact that these trajectories appear extraordinary highlights a reality: women’s access to the deepest levels of the AI value chain remains limited. Hardware, compute, deeptech financing, and scientific direction of major laboratories remain predominantly male spaces. But these two paths demonstrate that control of critical resources is no longer a theoretical horizon.
Their real influence is already measured by two observable transformations: the modification of the perception of AI research financing and the diversification of the global compute market.
The Real Challenge: Reproducibility
The central question is therefore not whether Mira Murati and Lisa Su are influential. They are, but at different levels and on distinct timelines. The real question is that of the reproducibility of their trajectory. Their power will be fully structural when their presence is no longer exceptional, but embedded in training, financing, and scientific governance pipelines.
Because the deepest influence is not individual. It is systemic.
Toward a New Definition of Technological Leadership
In the history of artificial intelligence, these two trajectories may mark the moment when leadership changes in nature. It is no longer just about launching products that transform uses, but about building the infrastructures that make these transformations possible. At this level, inspiration and power are no longer opposed. They become two sides of the same dynamic: the one that consists of demonstrating that scientific mastery, long-term vision, and industrial rigor can redefine the global map of innovation.
