Direct Answer
NVIDIA Corporation was founded on April 5, 1993. It went public on January 22, 1999, at $12 per share. CUDA, the computing platform that enabled the modern AI era, launched in 2006. NVIDIA acquired Mellanox Technologies in April 2020 for approximately $6.9 billion. A 10-for-1 stock split took effect on June 10, 2024. NVIDIA joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average on November 8, 2024, replacing Intel.
1993: Founding
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem founded NVIDIA Corporation on April 5, 1993. The company was incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
The initial focus was graphics accelerators for the PC gaming market. NVIDIA's first product was the NV1 multimedia card, released in 1995. The RIVA 128 in 1997 established NVIDIA as a serious competitor in consumer graphics, and the GeForce 256 in 1999, marketed as the first GPU, locked in the company's leadership position.
1999: IPO and early public years
NVIDIA held its initial public offering on January 22, 1999, listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker NVDA at an offering price of $12 per share. The IPO raised approximately $42 million.
The company used the GeForce brand to consolidate its position in the gaming GPU market. Competition came from 3dfx Interactive, which NVIDIA acquired in 2000, and from ATI Technologies, which was later acquired by AMD. NVIDIA also diversified early into professional workstations under the Quadro brand.
2006: CUDA and the pivot to computing
NVIDIA introduced CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) in 2006 as a parallel computing platform and programming model allowing developers to use NVIDIA GPUs for general-purpose computing beyond graphics.
Initial applications were in scientific computing and high-performance computing. The trajectory changed dramatically in 2012 when AlexNet demonstrated that GPUs were the natural hardware for training deep learning models. NVIDIA's Tesla product line for data centers expanded to serve AI labs globally, and the Pascal and Volta GPU architectures scaled GPU computing for large-scale AI training.
CUDA became the dominant AI training and inference platform, giving NVIDIA a durable software moat: rewriting a production deep learning stack for a competing platform carries high switching costs.
2020: Mellanox acquisition
NVIDIA announced the acquisition of Mellanox Technologies on March 11, 2019, for $6.9 billion. The deal closed on April 27, 2020.
Mellanox produced InfiniBand and Ethernet networking products used in high-performance computing and data centers. Combining NVIDIA GPUs with Mellanox's high-bandwidth interconnects allowed NVIDIA to offer a more complete AI data center stack. Mellanox's networking revenue was integrated into what is now reported as the Compute and Networking segment.
2020 to 2022: Failed Arm acquisition
On September 13, 2020, NVIDIA announced an agreement to acquire Arm Limited from SoftBank for up to $40 billion. Arm licenses the dominant CPU architecture used in smartphones, IoT devices and increasingly in data centers.
Regulatory authorities in the U.S. (FTC), European Union, United Kingdom (CMA) and China raised antitrust concerns about NVIDIA controlling a foundational technology licensed by competitors across the semiconductor industry.
On February 8, 2022, NVIDIA and SoftBank announced the termination of the acquisition. NVIDIA paid a $1.25 billion breakup fee, which SoftBank retained as a non-refundable deposit. Arm subsequently went public on September 14, 2023, on Nasdaq under the ticker ARM.
2023 to 2024: Blackwell and the AI infrastructure era
The H100 GPU, based on the Hopper architecture and launched in 2022, became the dominant chip for AI model training globally. Demand for H100 and its successor H200 exceeded supply through 2023 and 2024 as hyperscalers and enterprises raced to build AI infrastructure.
Data center revenue grew from $14.5 billion in FY2023 to $47.5 billion in FY2024 to $115.2 billion in FY2025. NVIDIA announced the Blackwell architecture in March 2024 as the next generation of AI computing platforms.
Stock splits
NVIDIA has executed multiple stock splits over its history to bring the per-share price to a range accessible to retail investors.
- 4-for-1 split: Effective July 19, 2021. The pre-split price was approximately $750; post-split it became approximately $188.
- 10-for-1 split: Effective June 10, 2024. The pre-split price was approximately $1,200; post-split it became approximately $120. This was one of the largest dollar-adjusted stock splits by a major U.S. company.
Investors should adjust historical per-share comparisons to reflect the applicable split ratios.
2024: Dow Jones Industrial Average inclusion
S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on October 26, 2024, that NVIDIA would replace Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, effective November 8, 2024.
The change reflected a symbolic shift in the semiconductor industry. Intel had been a long-standing Dow component representing PC-era computing. NVIDIA's inclusion recognized its emergence as the dominant provider of AI infrastructure hardware and one of the most valuable U.S. companies by market capitalization.
The Dow is a price-weighted index, so NVIDIA's share price affects its weight in the index. Index membership does not guarantee future performance or permanent inclusion.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was NVIDIA founded?
NVIDIA Corporation was founded on April 5, 1993, by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The company was incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
When did NVIDIA go public?
NVIDIA held its initial public offering on January 22, 1999, listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker NVDA at an offering price of $12 per share. The IPO raised approximately $42 million.
What is CUDA and when was it launched?
CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is NVIDIA's parallel computing platform and programming model that allows developers to use NVIDIA GPUs for general-purpose computing beyond graphics. NVIDIA introduced CUDA in 2006, initially for scientific computing workloads. CUDA became the dominant AI training and inference platform as deep learning emerged, giving NVIDIA a durable software moat.
When did NVIDIA join the Dow Jones Industrial Average?
NVIDIA joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average on November 8, 2024, replacing Intel. The addition reflected NVIDIA's emergence as a dominant force in AI infrastructure and its growth to become one of the most valuable U.S. companies by market capitalization.