By Sean Williams
Publication Date: 2026-04-05 12:06:00
You may not realize it, but what’s arguably become the most important publicly traded company of our generation was founded 33 years ago today. On April 5, 1993, Nvidia (NVDA +0.87%) was cofounded in Sunnyvale, CA, by Jensen Huang (the company’s current CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem.
Although Nvidia was best-known for its graphics processing units (GPUs) used in PC gaming for decades, it’s the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) contributions that have sent its shares up nearly 464,000%, including dividends paid, since its initial public offering in January 1999.
Image source: Nvidia.
Nvidia’s spot atop the AI pedestal is unrivaled
Artificial intelligence is the largest technological leap forward for corporate America since the advent and proliferation of the internet in the mid-1990s. PwC’s analysts believe AI can create more than $15 trillion in global economic value by 2030, indicating there will be a laundry list of winners in this space — perhaps none bigger than Nvidia.
Nvidia’s GPUs hold a virtual monopoly in enterprise AI data centers, and it’s unlikely this competitive edge will be lost anytime soon. Its Hopper, Blackwell, and Blackwell Ultra GPUs have proved superior to all external competitors on a compute basis.
Furthermore, Jensen Huang is overseeing an aggressive product development cycle designed to bring an advanced AI chip to market each year. If Nvidia’s peers are struggling to compete with its prior-generation chips, it’s hard to…