Nvidia became the first company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization based largely on semiconductor design rather than manufacturing.
Nvidia crossed $1 trillion in market value in May 2023 after investors responded to explosive demand for its graphics processors and data-center products. These processors became central to training and running artificial-intelligence systems, particularly large language models.
Nvidia designs chips and develops the CUDA software ecosystem, but it relies on specialist foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to fabricate many of its processors. This makes Nvidia different from an integrated manufacturer such as Intel and from a pure-play foundry such as TSMC.
The company began as a graphics-chip specialist for computer games. Its products later expanded into professional visualization, high-performance computing, automotive systems, and artificial intelligence, transforming its role in the technology market.