Nvidia designs GeForce graphics processors and was founded in 1993.
The company was established by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia initially focused on graphics hardware for personal computers and became widely associated with its GeForce line of graphics processing units, or GPUs. These chips were designed to render images and video efficiently for games and other demanding applications.
Nvidia later developed CUDA, a platform that allows programmers to use GPUs for general-purpose parallel computing. That capability helped make Nvidia hardware important in scientific computing, artificial intelligence, and data centers, not just computer graphics. Demand for AI accelerators greatly increased the company’s visibility among the world’s most valuable technology businesses.
Nvidia is sometimes confused with AMD because both make graphics products. Nvidia’s GeForce brand and CUDA software platform are distinctive parts of its identity. Market capitalization measures the value investors assign to Nvidia’s shares, not the number of GPUs it sells.