Arm CEO Rene Haas Talks AI at President's Lecture Series
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To kick off the academic year, Arm CEO Rene Haas joined Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian in the first event of the 2025-26 President’s Lecture Series(opens in new window).
Haas, who has led the semiconductor and software design company since 2022, previously spent seven years at chipmaker NVIDIA. Arm’s compute platform can be found in billions of devices worldwide, including autonomous vehicles and smart home devices as well as in health care and infrastructure applications.
Haas sat down for a conversation with Jahanian to talk about his career and leadership style as well as his thoughts on artificial intelligence and how it will influence future innovation. The discussion doubled as a recording session for a future episode of "Tech Unheard(opens in new window)," Haas' podcast.
The wide-ranging conversation touched on everything from the future of workforce in the AI economy to college affordability.
The event came as CMU announced that eight Ph.D. students have been chosen as SoftBank Group–Arm Fellows for research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human collaboration. Several recipients of the fellowship were in the audience.
Jahanian noted partnerships like the Softbank Group-Arm Fellowship and efforts like CMU's successful Pathway Program(opens in new window) help to ensure deserving, talented and high-achieving students can afford and attend CMU regardless of their socioeconomic background or family resources.
During the conversation, Jahanian asked Haas to share how his personal experiences and professional journey shaped his own evolution as a leader and mentor.
"You can teach a lot of things in terms of skills, you can teach a lot of things in terms of how to get things done, but curiosity is that pilot light that keeps you going, and if you've got a natural curiosity for doing things, you're going to go pretty far.” — Rene Haas
Jahanian and Haas also talked about challenges and opportunities regarding artificial intelligence, including energy and the role of colleges and universities have in driving innovation. Carnegie Mellon faculty recently developed a series of white papers(opens in new window) highlighting their research on practical solutions for how the U.S. produces, moves and secures energy.
“Research done by universities in this space around sustainability and energy efficiency is a huge, huge opportunity.” — Rene Haas
The conversation ended with one last piece of advice for students.
“Experiment often and be really comfortable with failing. Mistakes are made ... be happy with failure, because that will give you the advancement that you really deserve and want.” — Rene Haas
