NVIDIA Corporation is a major supplier of graphics processors (GPUs), graphics cards, and media and communications devices for PCs and game consoles (Xbox). It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. In 2001, it had revenues of $1.37 billion, rising from $735.3 million in 2000. Net income in 2001 comprised $177.1 million, up from $99.9 million.
Jen-Hsun Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem founded the company in January 1993 and incorporated it in California in April 1993 (later re-incorporating it in Delaware). The company remained relatively low-key until the late 1997-98 period, when it launched its line of RIVA PC graphics processors. It went public in January 1999 on Nasdaq; in May of that year it shipped its 10 millionth graphics processor. In 2000 it acquired the intellectual assets of one-time rival 3dfx, one of the biggest graphics companies of the early to mid-1990s. Microsoft selected NVIDIA to supply the graphics requirements of its Xbox. NVIDIA established close ties with many OEM companies as well as with organizations like SGI. By February 2002, NVIDIA had shipped 100 million processors.
NVIDIA currently maintains a leadership position in the graphics card industry, supplying much of the market. This dominance depended on the GeForce line of video cards, first launched in 1999. The original GeForce had the first GPU to bear that name. Currently ATI provides the major competition to NVIDIA in the consumer market and was selected by Microsoft to produce the graphics processors for the XBox 2.
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Graphics cards
Personal Computer Platforms/Chipsets
External link