Nvidia
Founded by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, who agreed to start the company in a meeting at a Denny's roadside diner in East San Jose, beginning with $40,000 in the bank.
Founded1993
HeadquartersSan Jose, CA
IndustrySemiconductors / AI
Nvidia Endeavor headquarters, Santa Clara · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Overview
Nvidia became the central hardware company of the AI era.
Founders
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem
Founded April 5, 1993
Landmark Achievements
- Popularized the modern graphics processing unit (GPU) with the GeForce 256 (1999), redefining computer graphics and PC gaming.
- Its CUDA platform (2006) made GPUs programmable for general computing, seeding the deep-learning revolution.
- The overwhelming majority of AI model training runs on Nvidia GPUs; it became the world's most valuable company.
Nvidia's place in the story
Continue through the chronicle — the builders of American technology, in founding order.