Nvidia introduced the GeForce 256, which it called the world's first GPU, in 1999.
Nvidia announced the GeForce 256 on August 31, 1999, and released it in October of that year. The product was based on Nvidia's NV10 graphics processor and marked a major change in the company's product naming and marketing.
Nvidia used “GPU,” short for graphics processing unit, to describe a processor capable of transforming and lighting geometry as well as handling rendering tasks. Earlier graphics cards performed important 3D functions, but Nvidia promoted the GeForce 256 as a complete graphics-processing unit.
The GeForce 256 is not the same thing as every later GeForce product. It was the first model in the GeForce family, while modern GeForce cards span many generations and architectures. Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.