NVIDIA, founded in 1993 by engineers Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, emerged with a desire for innovation in graphic technology. With prior experience at Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI), a prominent graphics card manufacturer, the founders aimed to revolutionize the domain due to perceived limitations in PC graphic processing capabilities.
In the early 1990s, graphic cards primarily focused on 2D graphics, but NVIDIA sought to differentiate itself by concentrating on 3D graphics. This strategic shift resulted in the groundbreaking release of the GeForce 256 in 1999, marking a significant leap in graphic processing performance.
Moreover, NVIDIA envisioned graphic cards transcending beyond gaming graphics to play a crucial role in scientific research and high-performance computing. This vision led to the development of technologies such as CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), enabling the utilization of GPUs in parallel computing.
While NVIDIA initially started in the graphics card sector, over time, it has evolved into a company driving technological innovation in diverse fields, including deep learning, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing.