Nvidia created the CUDA parallel-computing platform used widely for GPU computing. Nvidia introduced CUDA in 2006, allowing programmers to use the company’s graphics processing units for general-purpose computations beyond rendering images.
CUDA helped make Nvidia hardware important in scientific computing, machine learning, engineering, and data analysis. A GPU contains many processing cores that can perform large numbers of similar operations simultaneously, while a CPU is generally optimized for a smaller number of more varied tasks.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became known for graphics processors used in personal computers and video games. The company later expanded into professional visualization, automotive computing, data centers, and artificial intelligence.
Nvidia’s market capitalization grew sharply as demand for accelerators used to train and run AI models increased. CUDA is proprietary to Nvidia, so it is not the same thing as a graphics-card brand or a general operating system. Its software ecosystem became a major competitive advantage.