Pivot · United States · 1993–2024
Nvidia: from gaming graphics cards to the engine of AI
Nvidia nearly failed in its early years, won in PC gaming, and then spent a decade building software that let its chips power artificial intelligence.
By Shivam Bhandari · Reviewed 31 October 2026 · How we write
by the numbers
- Founded
- 1993
- CUDA launch
- 2006
- Revenue (fiscal 2024)
- about $61 billion
- Market value passes $1 trillion
- 2023
What happened
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem founded Nvidia in 1993 to build graphics chips for PCs. Its first product flopped and the company came close to running out of money before the RIVA 128 succeeded in 1997. In 1999 it marketed the GeForce 256 as the first ‘GPU’.
In 2006 Nvidia launched CUDA, software that let researchers use graphics chips for general computing. For years it was a costly bet with a small market. In 2012 the AlexNet image-recognition breakthrough was trained on two Nvidia gaming GPUs, and deep-learning researchers adopted Nvidia's chips and software en masse.
When generative AI took off in 2023, demand for Nvidia's data-centre chips exploded. In fiscal 2024 its revenue was about $61 billion, with data centres making up most of it, and its market value passed $1 trillion in 2023.
Timeline
- 1997
RIVA 128 saves the company.
- 1999
GeForce 256 marketed as the first GPU.
- 2006
CUDA general-purpose computing platform.
- 2012
AlexNet trained on Nvidia GPUs.
- 2023
AI boom; $1 trillion valuation.
what made it work
- Invested in software that made its hardware more useful.
- Kept funding an early bet for years before it paid off.
- Close relationships with researchers who became the market.
the lesson
A long, patient investment in making your product useful to a new group can turn a niche into a dominant position.
Apply it to your business
- 1Who else could use your product if you made it easier?
- 2Software and tools around a product can be the real moat.
- 3Stay close to early, demanding users.
Laws at work in this story
Figures are rounded and drawn from public reports, company filings and widely cited coverage at the time. Check the company's latest filings before relying on any number.