Nvidia designed the CUDA platform and became the world's most valuable company by market capitalization in 2024.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became known for graphics processing units, or GPUs, used for computer games and professional visualization.
The company introduced CUDA in 2006. CUDA allowed developers to use Nvidia GPUs for general-purpose parallel computing rather than limiting them to graphics. That capability became especially important for machine learning, where many calculations can be performed simultaneously.
Nvidia's market value surged as demand for data-center hardware used to train and run artificial-intelligence systems expanded. Its position can be confused with that of chip manufacturers such as TSMC: Nvidia primarily designs chips, while TSMC manufactures semiconductors for many companies. Market-cap rankings also change with share prices, so “most valuable” describes a point in time rather than a permanent title.