Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 before it became a market-cap leader in artificial intelligence chips.
Huang founded Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993. The company initially focused on graphics-processing technology for computers and video games. Its graphics processing units, or GPUs, were designed to perform many calculations in parallel, making them useful for rendering images.
That same parallel-processing capability later made Nvidia GPUs valuable for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Nvidia’s CUDA software platform helped developers use its hardware for general-purpose computing, strengthening the company’s position in data centers as AI adoption accelerated.
Nvidia’s market capitalization rose sharply during the 2020s, but its business history began in graphics rather than generative AI. Huang remains Nvidia’s chief executive and is closely associated with the company’s black leather-jacket public image. Nvidia is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.