Nvidia created the CUDA software platform and became a leading company in the artificial-intelligence boom.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became known for graphics processing units used in personal computers and video games. GPUs later proved highly effective for parallel calculations used in scientific computing and machine learning.
Nvidia introduced CUDA in 2006. CUDA allows developers to use Nvidia GPUs for general-purpose computing, creating a software ecosystem around the company’s hardware. That ecosystem became especially important as companies trained and deployed large artificial-intelligence models.
The company’s rapid market-cap growth reflected demand for data-center accelerators as well as gaming products. Nvidia is a chip designer and platform provider, but it relies on manufacturing partners rather than operating the world’s largest semiconductor foundries itself. This distinction separates it from integrated manufacturers such as Intel.