Nvidia introduced the GeForce 256 in 1999 and became a leading developer of graphics processors.
The GeForce 256 launched in August 1999 and was marketed as the world’s first graphics processing unit, or GPU. Nvidia had been founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.
Nvidia first became famous for graphics chips used in personal computers and video games. Its CUDA software platform, introduced in 2006, allowed developers to use GPUs for general-purpose parallel computing rather than graphics alone.
That flexibility later made Nvidia hardware central to artificial intelligence and data-center computing. The company’s market capitalization rose sharply as investors anticipated demand for accelerated computing, although its ranking remains sensitive to semiconductor cycles and share-price movements.