Nvidia Corporation is an American multinational technology company based in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, Nvidia is a fabless company specializing in the design and supply of graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing, as well as system-on-a-chip units (SoCs) for mobile computing and the automotive industry. The company is a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and software solutions.
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| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Company type | Public |
| Founded | April 5, 1993, in Sunnyvale, California, U.S |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California , U.S |
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| Area served | Worldwide |
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| Revenue |  US$60.92 billion (FY 2024) |
| Number of employees | 29,600 (FY 2024) |
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Nvidia's professional GPUs are utilized in edge-to-cloud computing, supercomputers, and workstations for applications across fields such as architecture, engineering and construction, media and entertainment, automotive design, scientific research, and manufacturing. The consumer-oriented GeForce line of GPUs is widely used in video editing, 3D rendering, and PC gaming. As of the second quarter of 2023, Nvidia held an 80.2% market share in the discrete desktop GPU market. The company has also expanded into the gaming industry with products such as the Shield Portable handheld console, Shield Tablet, Shield TV digital media player, and its GeForce Now cloud gaming service.
Beyond hardware, Nvidia offers the CUDA software platform and API, enabling the development of massively parallel programs leveraging GPUs. These technologies are widely deployed in global supercomputing environments. The company's mobile computing presence includes Tegra mobile processors, used in smartphones, tablets, and vehicle infotainment systems. Nvidia's primary competitors include AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and AI accelerator companies like Cerebras and Graphcore. Additionally, the company develops AI-powered software for audio and video processing, such as Nvidia Maxine.
In September 2020, Nvidia announced plans to acquire Arm Holdings from SoftBank. However, the deal was terminated in February 2022 after facing regulatory challenges, which would have made it the largest semiconductor acquisition in history. In 2023, Nvidia became the seventh publicly traded U.S. company to surpass a $1 trillion market valuation. In June 2024, the company briefly overtook Microsoft as the world's most valuable publicly traded company, reaching a market capitalization exceeding $3.3 trillion.
Founding of Nvidia
Nvidia was founded on April 5, 1993, by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. Huang, a Taiwanese-American electrical engineer, was previously the director of CoreWare at LSI Logic and a microprocessor designer at AMD. Malachowsky, an engineer from Sun Microsystems, and Priem, a senior staff engineer and graphics chip designer at IBM and Sun Microsystems, joined him in the venture.
The decision to establish the company was made during a meeting at a Denny's diner on Berryessa Road in East San Jose. At the time, Malachowsky and Priem were dissatisfied with Sun Microsystems' management, while Huang, who was running his own division at LSI, had a more stable position. Inspired by their shared vision of the future, Huang left LSI to become the CEO of the newly formed startup.
In 1993, the three co-founders envisioned a future where accelerated computing, particularly in graphics-based processing, would drive the next wave of computing. They recognized that video games presented both a significant computational challenge and the potential for high sales volumes, making them the perfect "killer app" to fund massive R&D. With only $40,000 in the bank, the company was born and later secured $20 million in venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and others.
In the late 1990s, Nvidia was one of 70 startups pursuing the idea of graphics acceleration for video games, with only two companies surviving: Nvidia and ATI Technologies, which later merged with AMD.
Initially, the company had no name, and the co-founders used "NV" for all their files, short for "next version." While considering names, they nearly chose NVision, but it was already taken by a toilet paper manufacturer. Huang then suggested "Nvidia," derived from the Latin word "invidia," meaning "envy." Nvidia's first headquarters was located in Sunnyvale, California.
Nvidia's First Graphics Accelerator: The NV1
Nvidia's first graphics accelerator, the NV1, was designed to process quadrilateral primitives (forward texture mapping), setting it apart from competitors that preferred triangle primitives. However, when Microsoft introduced the DirectX platform, it chose to support only triangle-based graphics through its Direct3D API. As a result, the NV1 failed to gain traction in the market.
Partnership with Sega and the Dreamcast Dilemma
Nvidia entered into a partnership with Sega to supply the graphics chip for the Dreamcast console, working on the project for a year. Unfortunately, Nvidia's technology was already lagging behind competitors, creating a difficult decision: continue working on a chip likely to fail or abandon the project and risk financial collapse.
In a pivotal moment, Sega's president, Shoichiro Irimajiri, visited Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, to inform him that Sega had decided to choose another vendor for the Dreamcast. However, Irimajiri believed in Nvidia's potential and convinced Sega’s management to invest $5 million into the company. Huang later reflected that this funding gave Nvidia six more months to survive.
Restructuring and the RIVA 128
In 1996, Nvidia underwent a drastic restructuring, laying off more than half of its employees, reducing the company from around 100 to just 40. The remaining resources were focused on developing the RIVA 128, a graphics accelerator optimized for triangle primitives. By the time the RIVA 128 was released in August 1997, Nvidia had only enough money left for one month’s payroll. The sense of impending failure became so pervasive that it led to an unofficial company motto: "Our company is thirty days from going out of business." For years afterward, Huang began internal presentations with this phrase.
Path to Success: RIVA 128 and TNT
Despite the dire financial situation, Nvidia sold about a million RIVA 128 units within four months, providing crucial revenue for future product development. In 1998, the release of the RIVA TNT further solidified Nvidia’s reputation as a leader in graphics technology.
Public Company
Nvidia went public on January 22, 1999. At the time, Sega, under the leadership of President Irimajiri, had invested in Nvidia after the company failed to deliver on a contract. This decision ultimately proved to be a beneficial one, as Sega later sold its Nvidia stock for $15 million after Irimajiri left the company in 2000.
In late 1999, Nvidia launched the GeForce 256 (NV10), its first product explicitly marketed as a GPU. The GeForce 256 was significant for introducing onboard transformation and lighting (T&L) to consumer-level 3D hardware. Operating at 120 MHz with four-pixel pipelines, the GeForce 256 provided advanced video acceleration, motion compensation, and hardware sub-picture alpha blending, outperforming existing products.
Nvidia's success in the GPU market led to the company securing a contract to develop the graphics hardware for Microsoft's Xbox game console, which included a $200 million advance. However, the project diverted many of Nvidia's top engineers from other initiatives. Despite this, the GeForce2 GTS was released in the summer of 2000.
In December 2000, Nvidia reached an agreement to acquire the intellectual assets of 3dfx, a former rival in the consumer 3D graphics market. The acquisition was finalized in April 2002. In 2001, Nvidia was selected by Standard & Poor's to replace Enron in the S&P 500 stock index, resulting in index funds having to hold Nvidia shares.
Nvidia continued expanding through acquisitions, purchasing Exluna in July 2002, followed by MediaQ in August 2003 for approximately $70 million. In April 2004, Nvidia acquired iReady, a provider of high-performance TCP offload engines and iSCSI controllers. In December 2004, Nvidia was also announced to be assisting Sony in designing the RSX graphics processor for the PlayStation 3. The company made additional acquisitions, including ULI Electronics in December 2005 and Hybrid Graphics in March 2006. In December 2006, both Nvidia and its rival AMD (which had acquired ATI) were subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding potential antitrust violations in the graphics card industry.
2007–2014
Forbes named Nvidia its Company of the Year for 2007, recognizing the company's achievements during that year and the preceding five years. In January 2007, Nvidia completed the acquisition of PortalPlayer, Inc., a company involved in digital media processing. The following year, in February 2008, Nvidia acquired Ageia, a developer of the PhysX physics engine and processing unit, with plans to integrate this technology into future GPU products.
In July 2008, Nvidia took a $200 million write-down on its first-quarter revenue after discovering manufacturing defects that caused "abnormal failure rates" in certain mobile chipsets and GPUs. However, the company did not disclose which specific products were affected. This led to a class action lawsuit in September 2008, alleging that faulty GPUs had been used in laptop models from Apple, Dell, and HP. In September 2010, Nvidia reached a settlement, agreeing to reimburse owners of the affected laptops for repairs or, in some cases, replacements.
On January 10, 2011, Nvidia signed a six-year, $1.5 billion cross-licensing agreement with Intel, resolving all litigation between the two companies.
In November 2011, Nvidia released the Tegra 3, an ARM-based system on a chip for mobile devices, which it claimed was the first-ever quad-core mobile CPU. The company also acquired Icera, a UK-based baseband chipmaker, for $367 million. In January 2013, Nvidia introduced the Tegra 4 and the Nvidia Shield, an Android-based handheld gaming console powered by the new chip. Later that year, in July 2013, Nvidia acquired PGI from STMicroelectronics.
In February 2013, Nvidia announced plans to build a new headquarters, featuring two large triangle-shaped buildings located across from its existing complex. The triangle design was chosen as a symbol of the fundamental building block of computer graphics, as described by CEO Jensen Huang in a blog post.
By 2014, Nvidia expanded its focus to include gaming, automotive electronics, and mobile devices. The company also ported the Valve games Portal and Half Life 2 to its Nvidia Shield tablet under the Lightspeed Studio brand. In the same year, Nvidia prevailed in litigation concerning its 2000 acquisition of 3dfx's intellectual assets. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's ruling that Nvidia had paid fair market value for 3dfx's assets before the company's bankruptcy.
2016–2018
In May 2016, Nvidia introduced the GeForce 10 series GPUs, the GTX 1080 and 1070, based on the Pascal microarchitecture. These models, featuring 16 nm manufacturing processes, surpassed the performance of Nvidia's earlier Titan X model and incorporated GDDR5X and GDDR5 memory. The Pascal architecture also included simultaneous multi-projection (SMP), improving multi-monitor and virtual reality rendering. In late 2017, Nvidia launched its "Max-Q" design standard for thinner laptops with these GPUs.
In July 2016, Nvidia settled a false advertising lawsuit regarding the GTX 970 model, which had limitations preventing it from fully utilizing its 4 GB VRAM. In May 2017, Nvidia entered a partnership with Toyota to use its Drive PX-series AI platform for autonomous vehicles, and in July, the company formed an AI collaboration with Baidu, covering cloud computing, autonomous driving, and consumer devices.
Nvidia released the Titan V in December 2017 and the Quadro GV100 in March 2018. Later, in September 2018, Nvidia launched the RTX 2080 GPUs, incorporating Ray Tracing (RTX) technology. In 2018, Nvidia’s Tesla P4 graphics cards were also integrated into Google's cloud services for AI workloads.
2019–2023
In March 2019, Nvidia acquired Mellanox Technologies for $6.9 billion to strengthen its presence in the high-performance computing market. The company also unveiled RTX Studio laptops and announced Minecraft RTX in August, bringing real-time ray tracing to the game.
In May 2020, Nvidia announced the acquisition of Cumulus Networks and a new initiative to create open-source ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nvidia's Ampere microarchitecture was revealed in May 2020, followed by the release of the GeForce 30 series GPUs in September. Nvidia also pursued the acquisition of Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion, although regulatory challenges in 2021 ultimately led to the deal's cancellation in early 2022.
In October 2020, Nvidia unveiled plans for Cambridge-1, a supercomputer in the UK focused on healthcare research. The same year, Nvidia announced the end of the Quadro brand, transitioning to Nvidia RTX for future workstation GPUs. In 2022, Nvidia continued expanding its automotive and healthcare AI software offerings, collaborating with organizations like MIT and the Broad Institute.
2024 and Beyond
In 2024, Nvidia's presence in Washington, D.C. expanded as the company increased its lobbying efforts regarding AI regulations. Nvidia's market dominance grew significantly, and by March 2024, the company became the third in U.S. history to surpass a $2 trillion market capitalization. Nvidia's H100 GPUs were in high demand, contributing to its rapidly growing market value.
The company continued to innovate, launching new AI chips, including the Blackwell microarchitecture, and entering new sectors such as AI-driven security through partnerships with companies like Trend Micro. Nvidia also introduced its NVLM 1.0 large language models in October 2024. Later that year, the company joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average and made strategic investments in Nebius Group.
In June 2024, Nvidia surpassed Microsoft and Apple to become the world's most valuable company, with a market capitalization exceeding $3.3 trillion. The company also faced antitrust investigations by the FTC and DOJ, examining its influence in the AI industry.
Fabless Manufacturing
Nvidia operates under a fabless manufacturing model, outsourcing all stages of its chip production, including wafer fabrication, assembly, testing, and packaging. This approach allows the company to avoid the substantial investment and operational risks typically associated with chip manufacturing. While Nvidia does not manage the production process directly, it occasionally procures certain components and materials, such as memory and substrates, for use in its products. Instead, Nvidia concentrates its resources on product design, quality assurance, marketing, and customer support, while relying on external suppliers for the actual manufacturing.
Corporate Affairs
Sales by Business Unit (2023)
- Compute & Networking: $47.4 billion (77.8% of total sales)
- Graphics: $13.5 billion (22.2% of total sales)
Sales by Region (2023)
- United States: $27.0 billion (44.3% of total sales)
- Taiwan: $13.4 billion (22.0% of total sales)
- China: $10.3 billion (16.9% of total sales)
- Other countries: $10.2 billion (16.8% of total sales)
Leadership
As of March 2024, Nvidia's key management team includes:
- Jensen Huang – Founder, President, and CEO
- Chris Malachowsky – Founder and Nvidia Fellow
- Colette Kress – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Jay Puri – Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations
- Debora Shoquist – Executive Vice President of Operations
- Tim Teter – Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary
Board of Directors
As of November 2024, Nvidia's Board of Directors consists of the following individuals:
- Rob Burgess – Former CEO of Macromedia Inc.
- Tench Coxe – Former Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures
- John Dabiri – Engineer and Professor at the California Institute of Technology
- Persis Drell – Physicist and Professor at Stanford University
- Jensen Huang – Co-founder, CEO, and President of Nvidia
- Dawn Hudson – Former Chief Marketing Officer of the National Football League
- Harvey C. Jones – Managing Partner of Square Wave Ventures
- Melissa B. Lora – Former President of Taco Bell International
- Stephen Neal – Lead Independent Director of Nvidia, Former CEO and Chairman Emeritus and Senior Counsel of Cooley LLP
- Ellen Ochoa – Former Director of NASA Johnson Space Center
- Brooke Seawell – Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates
- Aarti Shah – Former Senior Vice President & Chief Information and Digital Officer at Eli Lilly and Company
- Mark Stevens – Managing Partner at S-Cubed Capital
GPU Technology Conference
Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) is a series of technical conferences held globally, with the first event taking place in 2009 in San Jose, California. Initially, the conference focused on utilizing GPUs to solve computing challenges. Over the years, however, GTC's focus has evolved to encompass a broader range of applications, particularly those involving artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning. These include fields such as self-driving cars, healthcare, high-performance computing, and training through the Nvidia Deep Learning Institute (DLI).
GTC 2018 attracted over 8,400 attendees, while GTC 2020 was transformed into a digital-only event, drawing around 59,000 registrants. After several years of remote-only events, the conference returned to an in-person format in March 2024 in San Jose, California.
Product Families
Nvidia's product offerings span across various industries and technologies, including graphics processing units (GPUs), wireless communication devices, and automotive hardware and software. Some of the notable product families include:
- GeForce: Consumer-oriented graphics processing products.
- RTX: Professional visual computing graphics processing products (replacing the previous GTX and Quadro series).
- NVS: Multi-display business graphics processor.
- Tegra: System on a chip (SoC) series for mobile devices.
- Tesla: Dedicated general-purpose GPUs designed for high-end image generation in professional and scientific applications.
- nForce: Motherboard chipset for Intel (Celeron, Pentium, Core 2) and AMD (Athlon, Duron) microprocessors.
- GRID: A set of hardware and services focused on graphics virtualization.
- Shield: A range of gaming hardware, including Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, and Shield TV.
- Drive: Hardware and software products for autonomous vehicle design and manufacturing, including the Drive PX-series for high-performance autonomous driving platforms and Driveworks, an operating system for self-driving cars.
- BlueField: Data processing units, acquired through Nvidia's purchase of Mellanox Technologies.
- Grace: Datacenter/server-class CPU, released in 2023.
- DGX: Enterprise platform designed for deep learning applications.
- Maxine: AI-based conferencing software suite aimed at developers
Open-source Software Support
Until September 23, 2013, Nvidia had not published any documentation for its advanced hardware, which meant that programmers were unable to write free and open-source device drivers for Nvidia products without resorting to reverse engineering.
Instead, Nvidia provided its own proprietary binary GeForce graphics drivers for X.Org and an open-source library to interface with the Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris kernels and proprietary graphics software. Nvidia also offered an open-source driver (but discontinued support) that only provided two-dimensional hardware acceleration and was included in the X.Org distribution.
The proprietary nature of Nvidia's drivers has led to dissatisfaction within the free-software community. In a 2012 talk, Linus Torvalds criticized Nvidia's approach to Linux, famously stating, "Nvidia, fuck you." Some Linux and BSD users advocate for the exclusive use of open-source drivers and criticize Nvidia for only providing binary drivers, especially in contrast to competitors such as Intel, who offer support and documentation for open-source developers, and AMD, who releases partial documentation and supports active development.
Nvidia has only provided x86/x64 and ARMv7-A versions of their proprietary drivers, which has led to limitations such as CUDA being unavailable on other platforms. Additionally, some users claim that Nvidia's Linux drivers impose artificial restrictions, such as limiting the number of monitors that can be used simultaneously, though Nvidia has not commented on these accusations.
In 2014, with the release of Maxwell GPUs, Nvidia began requiring specific firmware to unlock all features of its graphics cards.
On May 12, 2022, Nvidia announced it would open-source its GPU kernel modules. By 2023, nouveau, the open-source graphics driver for Nvidia cards, implemented support for Nvidia's firmware, enabling proper power management and GPU reclocking for Turing and newer generations of graphics cards.
