Cloud computing, graphics chips, and software
www.investopedia.com, Dec. 17, 2020 –
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) designs, manufactures, and sells graphics processors and related software. The company was founded in the early 1990s as dozens of other companies competed to develop graphics chips for the PC for video games and multimedia. One of Nvidia's major successes in its early years was the invention of the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999 through a series of products including its GeForce 256 GPU. In the same year, Nvidia went pubic in a stock offering. Today, the company's products power a wide variety of computers, tablets, gaming systems, and related technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality. For the fiscal year ended January 26, 2020, Nvidia reported $2.8 billion in net income on revenue of $10.9 billion. As of December 16, 2020, it had a market capitalization of $327.9 billion.The company has two operating segments: GPU and Tegra Processor.
Out of the crowded field of graphics chip companies in 1990s, Nvidia is one of the only firms still in business. For the past 20 years, Nvidia has aggressively expanded via acquisitions, allowing the company not only to grow its offerings but to eliminate potential rivals. Through these deals, the maker of graphics processing units has been able to sharply boost its sales and market share, and diversify its product and service offerings.