Nvidia Corporation is a major American technology company. Nvidia makes advanced microprocessors called graphics processing units (GPU’s) to handle computer graphics (visuals). Nvidia has also expanded into the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The company’s growth has been fueled by innovation and by growing demand for GPU’s.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, an electrical engineer, and his friends Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Since then, Huang has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Nvidia. In 1995, Nvidia developed its first graphics processor, the NV1. The company sold few NV1 processors but found success with its later products.
In 1999, Nvidia created the first GPU for consumers, the GeForce 256. GPU’s enable computers to quickly render videos, video games, and other visuals. Nvidia has continued to release advanced GPU’s. In 2018, for example, Nvidia launched its GeForce RTX graphics chips. These GPU’s use ray tracing, a rendering technique in which the computer uses virtual light rays in a scene to create realistic light and shadows. Nvidia did not invent ray tracing, but its chips were the first to use the technology in real-time for consumer products. Nvidia remains the most successful producer of GPU’s.
GPU’s make up a large part of Nvidia’s revenue, but the company has also expanded into other types of products. Nvidia has played an important role in the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) because AI’s rely on the specialized capabilities of GPU’s for training and for generating results. In 2006, Nvidia released Computer Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), a tool kit for programming GPU’s. Programmers have used CUDA to further develop AI.
