Nvidia Corporation
Nvidia Corporation, a name that now echoes through the halls of technological dominance, is an American multinational behemoth headquartered in the heart of Santa Clara, California. Its public profile is a testament to its meteoric rise, being traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol NVDA, and holding significant positions within the Nasdaq-100, the DJIA, the S&P 100, and the S&P 500.
Industry and Foundation
Operating squarely within the semiconductors sector, Nvidia's genesis dates back to April 5, 1993. It was then, in the seemingly mundane setting of Sunnyvale, California, that a vision was forged by its founders: Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. Huang, who continues to steer the company as its president and CEO, remains the defining figurehead of this technological titan.
Core Business and Evolution
Nvidia's initial foray into the market was driven by the development of graphics processing units (GPUs), primarily for the burgeoning video game industry. However, their trajectory was far from static. The company astutely recognized the broader potential of its core technology, expanding its reach into fields as diverse as artificial intelligence (AI), professional visualization, and the demanding realm of high-performance computing. This strategic diversification has been fueled by the creation of sophisticated systems on chips (SoCs) and versatile application programming interfaces (APIs), catering to data science and cutting-edge mobile and automotive applications.
The GeForce line of GPUs, a name synonymous with gaming prowess, now also serves creative professionals. Beyond gaming, Nvidia's professional GPUs are instrumental in edge computing, pushing the boundaries of scientific research and industrial applications. As of the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, Nvidia's dominance in the discrete desktop and laptop GPU market was undeniable, commanding a staggering 92% share.
The CUDA Revolution and AI Dominance
A pivotal moment in Nvidia's history, and indeed in the evolution of computing, was the company's substantial investment in CUDA in the early 2000s. This software platform and API was a game-changer, unlocking the immense parallel processing power of GPUs for a wide array of compute-intensive applications. By 2025, this foresight had positioned Nvidia as the undisputed leader in the AI hardware market, controlling over 80% of the market for GPUs used in training and deploying AI models. Their chips are the backbone of over 75% of the world's TOP500 supercomputers, a statistic that speaks volumes about their critical role in scientific advancement and artificial intelligence.
Beyond its core computational offerings, Nvidia has also cultivated a presence in gaming hardware and services, introducing products like the Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, and Shield TV. The GeForce Now cloud gaming service further extends its reach into the entertainment sector. The Tegra line of mobile processors also showcases Nvidia's versatility, powering smartphones, tablets, and sophisticated automotive infotainment systems.
Financial Ascendancy and Market Valuation
Nvidia's financial trajectory has been nothing short of spectacular. In 2023, it etched its name in history as the seventh U.S. company to breach the [US4 trillion and US$5 trillion milestones in market capitalization by 2025. This remarkable growth has been propelled by an insatiable global demand for data center hardware, a direct consequence of the unprecedented AI boom. Its sheer strength, size, and market value have earned it a coveted spot among Bloomberg's "Magnificent Seven", a group representing the market's absolute top-tier companies.
Historical Trajectory
Founding
The seeds of Nvidia were sown in late 1992, at a humble Denny's diner in San Jose, California. It was there that the three co-founders, Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, laid the groundwork for what would become a technological colossus. Huang, an accomplished electrical engineer with prior experience at LSI Logic and AMD, brought a formidable technical background. Malachowsky, an engineer from Sun Microsystems, and Priem, a senior engineer also with experience at IBM and Sun, rounded out the founding trio.
The initial impetus for the company's formation stemmed from a shared frustration with existing corporate structures and a compelling vision for the future of computing. Huang, already leading a division at LSI, was convinced by the founders' ambitious outlook to leave his secure position and embark on the entrepreneurial journey as CEO. Their core hypothesis was that graphics-based processing held the key to unlocking solutions for computational challenges that had long eluded conventional computing paradigms. Huang articulated this vision with striking clarity: "We also observed that video games were simultaneously one of the most computationally challenging problems and would have incredibly high sales volume. Those two conditions don't happen very often. Video games was our killer app — a flywheel to reach large markets funding huge R&D to solve massive computational problems."
The logistical hurdles of who would depart their established careers first were overcome through a series of resignations, starting with Priem from Sun. This created a momentum that propelled Huang and Malachowsky to follow suit, ultimately leading to the trio commencing operations in Priem's townhouse in Fremont, California, in early 1993. Armed with an initial 20 million in venture capital funding from prominent firms like Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures.
In the competitive landscape of the late 1990s, Nvidia was one of numerous startups vying for dominance in the nascent field of graphics acceleration for video games. Remarkably, only two of these companies, Nvidia and ATI Technologies (now part of AMD), survived the intense competition.
The naming of the company was a process of elimination and inspiration. Initial ideas like "Primal Graphics" proved unsatisfactory. The breakthrough came from the prefix "NV," derived from the intended name of their first product, "NV1." After discarding "NVision" due to a trademark conflict, Jensen Huang and Curtis Priem are credited with landing on "Nvidia," a derivative of the Latin word for "envy," "invidia." The company's initial headquarters were established in Sunnyvale, California.
First Graphics Accelerator: The NV1 and the Path to Redemption
Nvidia's inaugural graphics accelerator, the NV1, was designed with a unique approach, focusing on quadrilateral primitives rather than the industry standard triangles. This architectural choice, while innovative, proved to be its undoing. Microsoft's introduction of the DirectX platform, which exclusively supported triangles via its Direct3D API, rendered the NV1 commercially unviable.
The company found itself in a precarious position, having also entered into a partnership with Sega to develop the graphics chip for the Dreamcast console. As Nvidia's technology began to falter, the Dreamcast project became a potential lifeline or a catastrophic end. In a dramatic turn of events, Sega's president, Shoichiro Irimajiri, personally informed Nvidia of their decision to switch vendors. However, recognizing Nvidia's underlying potential, Irimajiri secured a crucial $5 million investment from Sega, which Huang later described as the company's "six months to live."
Facing an existential crisis, Huang made the difficult decision in 1996 to lay off over half of Nvidia's workforce, reducing its headcount from 100 to 40. The company then redirected its remaining resources towards developing a new graphics accelerator optimized for triangle primitives: the RIVA 128. The release of the RIVA 128 in August 1997 coincided with Nvidia having just enough funds for one more month of payroll, reinforcing the company's unofficial motto: "Our company is thirty days from going out of business." This mantra, uttered by Huang in internal presentations for years, underscored the constant tightrope walk.
The RIVA 128 was a runaway success, selling approximately one million units within four months. This revenue infusion was critical, enabling Nvidia to fund the development of its next generation of products. The release of the RIVA TNT in 1998 further solidified Nvidia's reputation as a leader in graphics technology.
Public Company and Strategic Acquisitions
Nvidia made its public debut on January 22, 1999. The investment made by Shoichiro Irimajiri proved to be a remarkably shrewd decision, as Sega later sold its Nvidia stock for $15 million after his departure.
The late 1999 saw the introduction of the GeForce 256 (NV10), a product explicitly marketed as a GPU. Its key innovation was the integration of onboard transformation and lighting (T&L) capabilities for consumer-level 3D hardware. With its four-pixel pipelines and 120 MHz clock speed, the GeForce 256 significantly outperformed existing offerings.
The success of its products led to Nvidia securing the contract to design the graphics hardware for Microsoft's Xbox console, a deal worth $200 million. While this project demanded significant engineering resources, the GeForce 2 GTS was released in the summer of 2000. In December 2000, Nvidia further consolidated its position by acquiring the intellectual assets of its former rival, 3dfx, a pioneering company in consumer 3D graphics technology. This acquisition was finalized in April 2002.
In 2001, Nvidia's growing prominence was recognized when it was selected by Standard & Poor's to replace the disgraced Enron in the S&P 500 index.
The early 2000s saw Nvidia continue its strategic expansion through acquisitions. In July 2002, the company acquired Exluna, a developer of software-rendering tools, integrating its personnel into the Cg project. In August 2003, MediaQ was acquired for approximately $70 million, leading to the launch of the GoForce line the following year. On April 22, 2004, Nvidia bolstered its networking capabilities by acquiring iReady, a provider of high-performance TCP offload engines and iSCSI controllers. December 2004 marked a significant collaboration with Sony to design the graphics processor (RSX) for the PlayStation 3 console. In December 2005, Nvidia acquired ULI Electronics, a supplier of southbridge components. The acquisition of Hybrid Graphics in March 2006 further expanded Nvidia's software and middleware portfolio. By December 2006, both Nvidia and its primary competitor, AMD (which had acquired ATI), found themselves subject to subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Justice concerning potential antitrust violations in the graphics card industry.
2007–2014: Diversification and Strategic Alliances
Forbes recognized Nvidia's significant achievements by naming it Company of the Year for 2007, acknowledging its accomplishments over the preceding five years. January 5, 2007, saw the completion of Nvidia's acquisition of PortalPlayer, Inc.. In February 2008, the company further expanded its physics simulation capabilities by acquiring Ageia, the developer of the PhysX physics engine and processing units. Nvidia announced its intention to integrate PhysX technology into its future GPU products.
A significant financial event occurred in July 2008 when Nvidia took a write-down of approximately 1.5 billion cross-licensing agreement.
November 2011 marked Nvidia's entry into the mobile processor market with the release of its ARM-based system on a chip, the Tegra 3, which boasted the industry's first quad-core mobile CPU. The company expanded its mobile presence further by acquiring UK-based baseband chip maker Icera for $367 million in May 2011. In January 2013, Nvidia unveiled the Tegra 4 and the Nvidia Shield, an Android-based handheld game console powered by the new SoC. On July 29, 2013, Nvidia announced its acquisition of PGI from STMicroelectronics.
In February 2013, Nvidia revealed plans for a new, architecturally distinct headquarters in Santa Clara, California, characterized by two large triangle-shaped buildings, a design theme reflecting the triangle's fundamental role in computer graphics, as explained by Huang.
In 2014, Nvidia's Lightspeed Studio successfully ported Valve's iconic games, Portal and Half Life 2, to its Nvidia Shield Tablet. This period also saw Nvidia strategically diversify its business, focusing on three key markets: gaming, automotive electronics, and mobile devices.
The company also achieved a legal victory in 2014, prevailing in litigation challenging its 2000 acquisition of 3dfx's intellectual assets. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's decision that Nvidia had paid fair market value for the assets.
2016–2018: Pascal Architecture and AI Integration
May 6, 2016, heralded the arrival of Nvidia's GeForce 10 series GPUs, including the GTX 1080 and 1070, built upon the new Pascal microarchitecture. These models offered performance exceeding the previous Titan X, incorporating advanced memory technologies and a 16 nm manufacturing process. The Pascal architecture introduced simultaneous multi-projection (SMP), a feature designed to enhance rendering quality for multi-monitor setups and virtual reality (VR) experiences. Laptops meeting specific thinness criteria (under 0.8 inches) and incorporating these GPUs were designated with Nvidia's "Max-Q" design standard.
In July 2016, Nvidia settled a false advertising lawsuit concerning its GTX 970 model, which had faced scrutiny for its inability to fully utilize its advertised 4 GB of VRAM. May 2017 saw Nvidia announce a significant partnership with Toyota, integrating Nvidia's Drive PX-series artificial intelligence platform into Toyota's autonomous vehicle development. This was followed in July 2017 by a comprehensive AI partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu, covering cloud computing, autonomous driving, consumer devices, and Baidu's AI framework, PaddlePaddle, with Nvidia's Drive PX 2 AI serving as the foundation for Baidu's autonomous vehicle platform.
Nvidia officially released the Titan V on December 7, 2017, and the Nvidia Quadro GV100 on March 27, 2018. The RTX 2080 GPUs were launched on September 27, 2018. In 2018, Google announced the integration of Nvidia's Tesla P4 graphic cards into its Google Cloud service for artificial intelligence applications.
A notable controversy arose in May 2018 regarding Nvidia's web drivers for legacy Mac Pro machines running macOS Mojave. Despite Apple listing Metal-compatible GPUs, including some from Nvidia, the company stated that Apple held complete control over macOS drivers and that Nvidia engineers were ready to assist if Apple approved. This situation, coupled with Apple's reported desire to reduce reliance on Nvidia, led to significant user frustration and discussions about Apple potentially developing its own GPU technology, potentially forcing users to switch to AMD Radeon cards.
2019 Acquisition of Mellanox Technologies
March 11, 2019, marked a pivotal moment with Nvidia's announcement of its $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox Technologies. This strategic move significantly bolstered Nvidia's presence in the high-performance computing market. In May 2019, Nvidia unveiled its new RTX Studio laptops, claiming performance seven times faster than a top-end MacBook Pro in specific creative applications. August 2019 saw the announcement of Minecraft RTX, a patch for the popular game adding real-time DXR ray tracing, fundamentally altering the game's lighting and shadow dynamics.
2020–2023: Ampere Architecture, Arm Acquisition Attempt, and AI Boom Acceleration
May 2020 saw Nvidia acquire Cumulus Networks, integrating its networking expertise into Nvidia's existing business unit. In the same month, Nvidia developed an open-source ventilator design to address shortages during the coronavirus pandemic. May 14, 2020, officially introduced Nvidia's Ampere GPU microarchitecture and the A100 GPU accelerator.
The year 2020 was dominated by Nvidia's pursuit of Arm, a UK-based chip designer. In July, reports surfaced of Nvidia's talks with SoftBank Group for a 40 billion, with SoftBank retaining a 10% stake in Nvidia.
October 2020 saw Nvidia announce plans for the Cambridge-1 supercomputer in Cambridge, England, a $100 million investment aimed at accelerating healthcare research using AI. In the same month, Nvidia announced the retirement of its Quadro workstation GPU brand, rebranding future products under the Nvidia RTX banner, utilizing the Nvidia Ampere architecture.
The ambitious Arm acquisition faced significant regulatory hurdles. In August 2021, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority raised "significant competition concerns." In October 2021, the European Commission launched its own investigation, citing concerns about restricted access to Arm's products and potential internal information sharing. By early February 2022, SoftBank and Nvidia mutually agreed to abandon the transaction due to "significant regulatory challenges." This would have been the largest semiconductor acquisition in history.
In March 2022, Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang expressed openness to Intel manufacturing Nvidia's chips in the future, a notable shift in the company's manufacturing strategy. April 2022 brought news of Nvidia's plans to establish a new research center in Yerevan, Armenia. May 2022 saw the opening of Voyager, the second of Nvidia's new twin headquarters buildings in Santa Clara, featuring a more subdued application of the triangle design theme.
September 2022 heralded the announcement of Nvidia's next-generation automotive chip, Drive Thor, and a collaboration with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to integrate Nvidia's Clara AI healthcare software suite.
In response to U.S. Department of Commerce export restrictions to China in October 2022, Nvidia introduced the A800 GPU, a modified chip designed to comply with the regulations.
September 2023 saw Nvidia partner with Getty Images to launch Generative AI by Getty Images, a tool for creating images using licensed Getty photos, powered by Nvidia's Edify model. On September 26, 2023, a ceremony at the Denny's in East San Jose marked the spot where Nvidia's journey began, with a plaque commemorating the birthplace of a trillion-dollar company. The demand for Nvidia's H100 GPUs was so intense that tech giants like Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation and Elon Musk of Tesla, Inc. were reportedly "begging" for supply.
October 2023 brought reports of Nvidia designing ARM-based CPUs for Microsoft's Windows operating system, with a target launch in 2025.
2024–2025: Unprecedented Growth and Global Impact
January 2024 saw Forbes report on Nvidia's increased lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., as lawmakers grappled with proposals for regulating artificial intelligence. The company had significantly expanded its government affairs team, though its lobbying expenditure in 2023 was modest compared to other major tech players.
In January 2024, analysts from Raymond James Financial estimated the H100 GPU's price range between 30,000, with individual units fetching over $40,000 on eBay. The immense demand from major technology companies for data center GPUs for generative AI projects translated into billions of dollars in capital expenditures.
February 2024 highlighted Nvidia's status as a "hot employer" in Silicon Valley, offering compelling work and competitive compensation amidst broader tech industry downsizing. The average Nvidia employee earned over $228,000 in 2023. The value of Nvidia GPUs had become so significant that they required special security during transit, with Cisco CIO Fletcher Previn noting they arrived "by armored car."
March 1, 2024, marked a historic milestone as Nvidia became the third U.S. company to close with a market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion valuation. On March 18, Nvidia unveiled its next-generation AI chip and microarchitecture, Blackwell, named after mathematician David Blackwell.
April 2024 brought reports of China allegedly acquiring banned Nvidia chips and servers through tenders from companies like Supermicro and Dell.
In June 2024, antitrust investigations were initiated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department (DOJ) into Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI, focusing on their influence within the AI industry. This followed concerns raised by OpenAI employees regarding rapid AI advancements and the need for oversight.
On June 18, 2024, Nvidia surpassed Microsoft and Apple to become the world's most valuable company, with its market capitalization exceeding $3.3 trillion.
June 2024 also saw Trend Micro announce a partnership with Nvidia to develop AI-driven security tools for data centers, integrating Nvidia NIM and Morpheus with Trend Vision One.
In October 2024, Nvidia introduced NVLM 1.0, a family of open-source multimodal large language models, featuring a flagship 72 billion parameter model designed to enhance text-only performance post-multimodal training.
November 2024 saw Nvidia added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Morgan Stanley reported in November 2024 that the entire 2025 production of Nvidia's Blackwell chips was already sold out. Also in November 2024, the company purchased 1.2 million shares of Nebius Group.
Nvidia was ranked #3 on Forbes' "Best Places to Work" list in 2024.
As of January 7, 2025, Nvidia's market capitalization of $3.66 trillion was more than double the combined value of AMD, ARM, Broadcom, and Intel.
January 2025 witnessed Nvidia experience the largest one-day loss in market capitalization for a U.S. company in history, shedding $600 billion. This downturn was attributed to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that developed an advanced AI model with lower computing power requirements. DeepSeek's AI assistant, utilizing its V3 model, surpassed ChatGPT as the highest-rated free app in the U.S. on Apple's App Store.
On April 7, 2025, Nvidia released the Llama-3.1-Nemotron-Ultra-253B-v1 reasoning large language model under the Nvidia Open Model License, available in Nano, Super, and Ultra sizes.
May 28, 2025, saw Nvidia's second-quarter revenue forecast fall short of market estimates due to U.S. export restrictions impacting sales to China. Despite this, the company's stock rose 5%, reflecting investor optimism regarding long-term AI demand.
In July 2025, Nvidia acquired CentL, a Canadian-based AI firm. On July 10, 2025, Nvidia's market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion for the first time, making it the first company globally to reach this valuation. At this point, Nvidia's market value exceeded that of all publicly traded companies in the United Kingdom combined.
July 29, 2025, saw Nvidia order 300,000 H20 AI chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) due to robust demand from Chinese tech firms like Tencent and Alibaba.
In August 2025, Nvidia and competitor Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay 15% of revenues from certain chip sales in China as part of an arrangement to obtain export licenses, with Nvidia's contribution limited to H20 chip sales.
September 17, 2025, featured Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressing disappointment after the Cyberspace Administration of China reportedly ordered companies, including TikTok parent ByteDance and Alibaba, not to purchase the RTX Pro 6000D, a chip specifically designed for the Chinese market. This move was seen as an effort to strengthen China's domestic industry.
On September 18, 2025, Nvidia announced a $5 billion investment in Intel, providing significant support to the struggling U.S. chipmaker and securing Nvidia's ability to offer its GB300 data center servers on Intel's X86 architecture.
September 22, 2025, marked the announcement of a landmark partnership between Nvidia and OpenAI, wherein Nvidia would invest up to 35 billion in new Nvidia chips for every $10 billion invested by Nvidia.
October 2025 saw the announcement of the first commercial deployment of software developed by startup Emerald AI, in which Nvidia invests. This software, designed to dynamically adjust energy draw on a power grid, will be implemented at a new data center in Virginia, dubbed "Aurora," aiming to set a new flexible power standard. A server farm dedicated to autonomous AI was also announced in October 2025, a collaboration between SDS Schönfeld and VAST Data, an Israeli AI storage management company with close ties to Nvidia. This project, based in Bet Yehoshua, is expected to incorporate tens of petabytes of data infrastructure powered by VAST, along with thousands of Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and network processors, with approximately $30 billion secured for its development.
On October 29, 2025, Nvidia achieved another historic milestone, becoming the first company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion.
Fabrication
Nvidia operates under a fabless manufacturing model, outsourcing all phases of manufacturing, including wafer fabrication, assembly, testing, and packaging, to external suppliers. This strategy allows Nvidia to concentrate its resources on product design, quality assurance, marketing, and customer support, while circumventing the substantial capital investment and operational risks associated with chip manufacturing. The company does, however, directly procure certain components and materials, such as memory and substrates, used in its products.
Corporate Affairs
Sales Breakdown
As of fiscal year 2025, Nvidia's sales distribution illustrated its strategic focus:
- By Business Unit:
- Compute & Networking: $116.2 billion (89.0%)
- Graphics: $14.3 billion (11.0%)
- By Region:
- United States: $61.3 billion (46.9%)
- Singapore: $23.7 billion (18.2%)
- Taiwan: $20.6 billion (15.8%)
- China: $17.1 billion (13.1%)
- Other Countries: $7.9 billion (6.0%)
Leadership and Governance
As of March 2024, Nvidia's key management team included:
- Jensen Huang: Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer
- Chris Malachowsky: Founder and Nvidia Fellow
- Colette Kress: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Jay Puri: Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations
- Debora Shoquist: Executive Vice President of Operations
- Tim Teter: Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary
The company's board of directors, as of November 2024, comprised a diverse group of industry leaders and academics, including:
- Rob Burgess (former chief executive officer of Macromedia Inc.)
- Tench Coxe (former managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures)
- John Dabiri (engineer and professor at the California Institute of Technology)
- Persis Drell (physicist and professor at Stanford University)
- Jensen Huang (co-founder, CEO, and president of Nvidia)
- Dawn Hudson (former Chief Marketing Officer of the National Football League)
- Harvey C. Jones (managing partner of Square Wave Ventures)
- Melissa B. Lora (former president of Taco Bell International)
- Stephen Neal (lead independent director of Nvidia, former CEO and Chairman Emeritus and Senior Counsel of Cooley LLP)
- Ellen Ochoa (former director of NASA Johnson Space Center)
- Brooke Seawell (venture partner at New Enterprise Associates)
- Aarti Shah (former Senior Vice President & Chief Information and Digital Officer at Eli Lilly and Company)
- Mark Stevens (managing Partner at S-Cubed Capital)
Financial Performance
Nvidia's financial performance has been a story of exponential growth. The company's 10-year financial overview (2016–2025) reveals a dramatic increase in revenue and net income, alongside a steady rise in employee numbers:
| Year | Revenue (mn. US$) | Net income (mn. US$) | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5,010 | 614 | 9,227 |
| 2017 | 6,910 | 1,666 | 10,299 |
| 2018 | 9,714 | 3,047 | 11,528 |
| 2019 | 11,716 | 4,141 | 13,277 |
| 2020 | 10,918 | 2,796 | 13,775 |
| 2021 | 16,675 | 4,332 | 18,975 |
| 2022 | 26,914 | 9,752 | 22,473 |
| 2023 | 26,974 | 4,368 | 26,000 |
| 2024 | 60,922 | 29,760 | 29,600 |
| 2025 | 130,497 | 72,880 | 36,000 |
For the fiscal year 2020, Nvidia reported earnings of US10.918 billion, a slight decrease from the previous year. By January 2021, Nvidia's shares traded at over 328.7 billion.
The second quarter of 2020 saw Nvidia report a significant 50% surge in sales to 1 trillion during trading hours, reaching $1.2 trillion by November of the same year.
Ownership
The major shareholders of Nvidia in early 2024 reflected a significant institutional presence:
- The Vanguard Group (8.280%)
- BlackRock (5.623%)
- Fidelity Investments (5.161%)
- State Street Corporation (3.711%)
- Jensen Huang (3.507%)
- Geode Capital Management (2.024%)
- T. Rowe Price (2.013%)
- JPMorgan Chase (1.417%)
- BlackRock Life (1.409%)
- Eaton Vance (1.337%)
GPU Technology Conference (GTC)
Nvidia's annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) has evolved from its origins in 2009 as a technical conference focused on GPU computing to a premier global event for artificial intelligence and deep learning. GTC now explores applications in areas such as self-driving cars, healthcare, and high-performance computing, alongside training through the Nvidia Deep Learning Institute (DLI). GTC 2018 attracted over 8,400 attendees, while GTC 2020 transitioned to a digital format, drawing approximately 59,000 registrants. After several years of virtual events, GTC returned to an in-person format in San Jose, California, in March 2024. At GTC 2025, Nvidia unveiled its next-generation AI hardware, the Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin chips, signaling advancements toward agentic AI and reasoning-capable computing. Huang projected that AI-driven infrastructure would drive Nvidia's data center revenue to $1 trillion by 2028. The conference also introduced Isaac GR00T N1 (humanoid robotics model), Cosmos (a synthetic training data AI), and the Newton physics engine, developed in collaboration with DeepMind and Disney Research.
Product Families
Nvidia's extensive product portfolio encompasses a wide range of hardware and software solutions:
- GeForce: Consumer-oriented graphics processing products.
- RTX: Professional visual computing graphics processing products, succeeding the GTX and Quadro brands.
- NVS: Business graphics processors designed for multi-display applications.
- Tegra: A line of system on a chip (SoC) processors for mobile devices.
- Tesla: Dedicated general-purpose GPUs for high-end image generation in professional and scientific fields.
- nForce: Motherboard chipsets for Intel and AMD microprocessors.
- GRID: Hardware and services for graphics virtualization.
- Shield: A range of gaming hardware, including the Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, and Shield TV.
- Drive: Hardware and software solutions for autonomous vehicle development, including the Drive PX-series AI platform and the Driveworks operating system.
- BlueField: A line of data processing units (DPUs), inherited from the acquisition of Mellanox Technologies.
- Grace: A datacenter/server class CPU released in 2023.
- DGX: An enterprise platform specifically designed for deep learning applications.
- Maxine: A platform providing developers with a suite of AI-based conferencing software.
- Omniverse: A platform for the creation and operation of metaverse applications.
Open-Source Software Support
Historically, Nvidia's approach to open-source software support was a point of contention within the developer community. Until September 23, 2013, the company did not publish comprehensive documentation for its advanced hardware, necessitating reverse engineering for the development of free and open-source device drivers. While Nvidia provided proprietary binary drivers for X.Org and an open-source library for kernel interfacing, its stance drew criticism from figures like Linus Torvalds. Many in the Linux and BSD communities advocated for greater transparency and support for open-source development, contrasting Nvidia's approach with that of competitors like Intel and AMD.
Nvidia's proprietary drivers were primarily available for x86/x64 and ARMv7-A architectures, limiting features like CUDA on other platforms. Accusations of artificial restrictions, such as limiting monitor usage, were not officially commented upon by the company. In 2014, with its Maxwell GPUs, Nvidia began requiring proprietary firmware to unlock full functionality.
A significant shift occurred on May 11, 2022, when Nvidia announced it was open-sourcing its GPU kernel modules. Support for Nvidia's firmware was subsequently integrated into the nouveau driver in 2023, enabling proper power management and GPU reclocking for newer graphics card generations. In July 2025, Nvidia announced an extension of CUDA support to RISC-V, further broadening its ecosystem.
Nvidia's open-source projects include:
Deep Learning and AI Infrastructure
Nvidia GPUs have become indispensable in the field of deep learning and accelerated analytics, largely due to the CUDA software platform. CUDA enables programmers to leverage the massive parallel processing capabilities of GPUs for machine learning algorithms. Tesla, Inc. initially utilized Nvidia GPUs in its vehicles before developing its own proprietary hardware. The company's GPUs are critical tools for researchers, laboratories, and tech companies worldwide.
The "big bang" of deep learning in 2009, where deep-learning neural networks were combined with Nvidia GPUs, is considered a watershed moment. Andrew Ng and the Google Brain team demonstrated that GPUs could accelerate deep learning systems by approximately 100 times.
DGX
Nvidia's DGX line represents a series of high-performance supercomputers designed for AI and deep learning workloads. The DGX-1, introduced in April 2016, integrated eight GPUs with specialized deep learning software. Nvidia famously gifted its first DGX-1 to OpenAI in August 2016, significantly reducing their AI model training times. Nvidia's Tesla K80 and P100 GPUs were also made available through Google Cloud and Microsoft's N-series instances. Partnerships with IBM led to the development of the IBM PowerAI software kit to enhance Watson's AI capabilities. The company also offers its own Nvidia Deep Learning software development kit.
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
In 2020, Nvidia unveiled "Omniverse," a virtual collaboration platform for engineers, and open-sourced Isaac Sim, which utilizes Omniverse to train robots through realistic physics simulations. By 2024, CEO Jensen Huang had pivoted Nvidia's strategic focus towards humanoid robots and self-driving cars, anticipating their widespread adoption. In 2025, Nvidia announced Isaac GR00T N1, an open-source foundation model designed to accelerate the development of humanoid robots, with early adopters including Neura Robotics, 1X Technologies, and Vention.
Inception Program
Nvidia's Inception Program, established to support startups at the forefront of AI and data science, had grown significantly by August 2021, boasting over 8,500 member companies across 90 countries and facilitating cumulative funding of US$60 billion.
Controversies
GTX 970 Hardware Specifications Dispute
In 2016, Nvidia settled a class-action lawsuit regarding the GeForce GTX 970, which had faced criticism for its advertised specifications and memory allocation. Users discovered that the card struggled to access memory beyond the 3.5 GB boundary, leading to performance degradation. Nvidia eventually issued an apology and offered a $30 refund to affected customers, acknowledging that the card's specifications had been altered prior to release without adequate disclosure. The dispute highlighted the complexities of hardware design and consumer communication.
GeForce Partner Program
The GeForce Partner Program, introduced in March 2018 as a marketing initiative, faced accusations of anti-competitive practices. It was canceled just two months later, on May 4, 2018, following industry backlash.
Hardware Unboxed Incident
In December 2020, Nvidia faced widespread criticism for its decision to withhold review samples of GeForce Founders Edition graphics cards from YouTube tech reviewer Steven Walton of Hardware Unboxed. Nvidia cited Walton's focus on rasterization performance over ray tracing as the reason. Following a strong backlash from the tech community, including prominent reviewers and outlets like Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus, Nvidia reversed its decision, apologized, and reinstated Walton's access to review samples.
Improper Disclosures Regarding Cryptomining
In May 2022, Nvidia agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC alleged that Nvidia failed to adequately disclose the significant impact of cryptomining on its revenue growth from gaming GPUs, misleading investors. Nvidia did not admit or deny the findings.
French Competition Authority Investigation
On September 26, 2023, Nvidia's French offices were searched by the French Competition Authority as part of an investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices in the graphics card market. Nvidia has not publicly commented on the matter.
AI Regulation Dispute with Anthropic
In July 2025, a public rift emerged between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Anthropic CEO [Dario Amodei] concerning AI regulation. Amodei vehemently denied Huang's accusations that safety concerns were being used to control the AI industry, calling them an "outrageous lie." The dispute underscored differing philosophies on AI development, with Amodei advocating for stronger regulation and Huang promoting open-source development and criticizing "regulatory capture." Nvidia responded by stating that lobbying for regulatory capture would stifle innovation and compromise AI safety.
Proposed Shanghai Facility and H20 Production Halt
In May 2025, U.S. senators Jim Banks and Elizabeth Warren expressed concerns about a proposed Nvidia facility in Shanghai, citing national security and economic security issues. In August 2025, Nvidia ordered suppliers to halt production of its H20 AI chip following Chinese government directives warning domestic companies against purchasing the processor due to security concerns. The H20, developed to comply with U.S. export restrictions, was intended for the Chinese market. Despite CEO Jensen Huang's denials of security backdoors, the production suspension occurred as Nvidia was developing the B30A chip, based on its Blackwell architecture, as a successor for the Chinese market.
Product Issues
Nvidia's journey has not been without its product-related challenges, which, while often resolved, have occasionally led to scrutiny and controversy.
See also
- San Francisco Bay Area portal
- Companies portal
- Electronics portal
- Technology portal
- Fast approximate anti-aliasing
- General-purpose computing on graphics processing units
- GPU workstations
- Huang's law
- Molecular modeling on GPUs
- Nvidia Parabricks
Notes
- ^ Officially written as NVIDIA Corporation and stylized in its logo as nVIDIA. Previously, it was stylized with an italicized lowercase 'n'. While the unofficial capitalization nVidia is sometimes used, the official branding is consistent. [3]