Nvidia developed the CUDA parallel-computing platform and was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.
The company began by designing graphics processors for demanding visual applications, especially computer games. Its GeForce products helped establish Nvidia as a leading maker of graphics processing units, commonly called GPUs.
Nvidia released CUDA in 2007. CUDA allows developers to use compatible Nvidia GPUs for general-purpose parallel computation, not only image rendering. That capability became important in scientific computing, machine learning, and artificial-intelligence systems, where many calculations can run simultaneously.
Nvidia's market value rose sharply as demand for data-center accelerators increased. Nvidia is sometimes confused with AMD because both design important graphics and computing chips; however, they are separate companies, and neither generally manufactures all of its own advanced silicon in-house.