Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.
The founders created the company to develop accelerated computing hardware, especially graphics-processing technology. Nvidia’s early success came from graphics processing units, or GPUs, used in personal computers and video games. The company introduced the GeForce brand in 1999, helping establish GPUs as a major consumer technology.
Nvidia later expanded into professional visualization, automotive computing, data centers, and artificial intelligence. Its CUDA software platform, introduced in 2006, allowed developers to use Nvidia GPUs for general-purpose parallel computing. That combination of hardware and software helped make Nvidia central to modern AI infrastructure and drove a dramatic rise in its market capitalization.
Nvidia is often confused with semiconductor manufacturers that fabricate chips in their own facilities. Nvidia is primarily a fabless chip designer and relies on manufacturing partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, for production.