Nvidia is the semiconductor company identified by the stock ticker NVDA and known for graphics processors.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It initially focused on graphics processing units, or GPUs, which render images and video for computers and games.
The company’s CUDA software platform later enabled developers to use Nvidia GPUs for general-purpose parallel computing. That capability helped make Nvidia hardware important in scientific computing, machine learning, and generative artificial intelligence, not only gaming.
Nvidia’s market value rose dramatically as demand for data-center accelerators increased. A common mix-up is confusing a GPU with a complete graphics card: Nvidia designs chips and platforms, while many finished cards are manufactured and sold by board partners. Nvidia also designs products for automotive computing and professional visualization.