From having 30 days left before going out of business to becoming the most valuable company ($3 Trillion) in the world. Nvidia's story is nothing less than an inspirational movie where underdogs beat the best to rule the rest.

NVIDIA HISTORY 

Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowksy, and Curtis Priem to introduce 3D Graphics into the gaming industry.

Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem were working at Sun Microsystems, while Jensen Huang was working at LSI Logic. It was when Jensen was assigned to work with Chris and Curtis at Sun Microsystems that the three of them teamed up and co-founded Nvidia in 1993.

Nvidia Founders

NVIDIA’S EARLY YEARS (1995-200)

1994: Nvidia formed a partnership with SGS-Thompson.

1995: Nvidia received the initial funding from Sequoia and Sierra, and also the SEGA partnership was established. They launched NV1, the first mainstream multimedia

processor-audio,2D, and 3D. It failed due to being costly and not compatible with the graphics API like Direct X, and only 1000 units were sold.

1996: NV2 was canceled before completion due to the failure of NV1.

1997: Nvidia launches NV3 or Riva 128, the company's first high-performance 128-bit direct 3D Processor. This last hope turned into massive success by selling a million units and establishing their strong prominence in the market. In the same year, they were recognized as the World's Most Respected Private Fabless Semiconductor company.

1998: Nvidia launches the RIVA TNT, the industry’s first multi-texturing 3D Processor.

1999: Nvidia launched the world's first graphics processing unit(GPU) ‘ GeForce 256’, which integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup, and rendering engines as a single chip. Also RIVA TNT 2, the first 32-bit frame buffer. Enters the commercial desktop market by launching NVIDIA Vanta.

Nvidia became a publicly listed company.

2000: Nvidia launches GeForce2 GTS, the world’s first per-pixel shading GPU. Later Quadro 2 Pro, the world’s fastest workstation GPU.Nvidia’s market cap was small in the early years, close to $1-$2 billion.

MARKET CAP

Nvidia Market Cap Graph

IMAGE SOURCE- COMPANIESMARKETCAP.COM

NVIDIA’S GROWTH (2001-2020)

2001: Formed partnership with Apple Computers. Geforce 3, the industry's first programmable GPU was launched to the market. The Nvidia personal cinema was introduced in the market.

2002: Nvidia reached a milestone of 100 million processors shipped. NVIDIA Unveils NVDVD Software DVD Player/Decoder and announces the release of nForce 2: The Digital Media Platform.

2003: Nvidia launches the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra and GeForce 59. Nvidia acquires MediaQ.

2004: NVIDIA introduces the Quadro® NVS 280 PCI, a professional 2D graphics board ideal for enterprise and multi-monitor applications. 

2005: Market cap rose to $6.25 billion.

2006: Nvidia Introduces Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), GPU-based parallel computing technology.

2007: Nvidia was named the Forbes ‘Company of the Year’. In that year, they released the GeForce 8 Series.

2009: Intel sued Nvidia, claiming the latter was not licensed to develop chipsets For its CPU, while Nvidia filed a countersuit stating its existing license covered chipset developments.

2010: Market Capitalization was $8.28 Billion.

2011: The Intel and Nvidia dispute was settled with Intel paying $1.5 billion to Nvidia and the companies extended their chipset agreement for another six years.

Nvidia Timeline

2012: Nvidia’s GPU was used in AlexNet AI systems, which had the ability to classify images with accuracy.  

2015: Market capitalization was $8.2 billion.

2017: NVIDIA partnered with Toyota to use NVIDIA's Drive PX-series AI platform for autonomous vehicles and released Titan V GPU.

NVIDIA unveiled the Volta microarchitecture, the first dedicated AI GPUs with tensor cores for accelerating deep learning.

2018: Nvidia Lunched RTX 2080 TI that enables incredible 3D designs, photorealistic simulations, and stunning visual effects faster.

2020: Nvidia's market capitalization increased to a whopping $330 billion.

Nvidia faced challenges and setbacks during this time period due to controversies related to abnormal failure rates and manufacturing rates, as well as some lawsuit cases. However, the company eventually expanded, and the market cap was increased to $300 billion by the end of 2020.

Nvidia Market Cap Gain

IMAGE SOURCE - COMPANIESMARKETCAP.COM

NVIDIA’S METEORIC RISE (2021-2024)

2021: Nvidia launches RTX 3000 GPU for gaming laptops and GeForce RTX 3080 TI hits the market.

Nvidia announced plans to acquire Arms Holding, a chip designer but couldn't do it due to some regulatory concerns.

2022: ChatGPT was released and it shook the entire world. It was using Nvidia GPU A100 and has been a key partner to open AI. According to the report by BBC, ChatGPT was trained using 10,000 GPUs from Nvidia.

Nvidia revealed new capabilities for its Omniverse platform, which enables 3D modeling, simulation, and collaboration.

Nvidia Launches GeForce RTX 3050 graphics.

2023: Nvidia has entered the $1 trillion market cap club, and became the first chip-maker company to do so. Nvidia's shares have experienced a meteoric rise, with prices more than tripling in 2023.

2024: Nvidia reached a $2 trillion market cap in February, then a $3 trillion market cap in just 96 days, surpassing Microsoft and Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.

They are revolutionizing the tech world with their products. They are creating a digital twin of Earth named ‘Earth 2’ to predict climate change in advance. Researchers across disciplines like astrophysics, genomics, climate science, and energy are using Nvidia technology. Top automakers like Mercedes, and Jaguar Land Rover rely on Nvidia DRIVE for their self-driving vehicle

By dethroning tech titans like Microsoft and Apple to become the world's most valuable company, Nvidia has become the world leader in artificial intelligence computing.

About the author 

Anisha Singh is a versatile content writer and poet who crafts engaging posts that inspire and entertain. Her published works include the lyrical poetry collection "Soulful Reflections," and the children's book "Guardians of Green,".

Whether penning insightful articles, weaving imaginative stories, or sharing her life lessons and experiences on WordPress, Anisha’s writing is driven by curiosity and a passion for translating complex ideas into compelling content. Anisha is a learner and marketing enthusiast who loves to learn about emerging trends and strategies.

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