The company now known as NVIDIA was founded without a name. Three co-founders, Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, agreed that graphics processers would be a huge market in the 1990s, but worked on the problem without choosing a moniker, instead labeling all of their files ‘NV’ for ‘Next Version’. Investor pressure led to them choosing a name, so they tried to find one including those two letters; they eventually settled on the Latin word ‘invidia’ – envy. Envy is what many people will likely feel towards those who invested in NVIDIAs 1999 IPO, as the company has gone on to become a true giant, crossing over $10 billion in annual revenue in 2020 with a high degree of profitability.

The founders’ insight was that the then still nascent computer games industry would put enormous demands on graphics displays, requiring dedicated processors to run. Today, the graphics segment of NVIDIA remains their largest revenue driver, and they are by far the market leader for PC graphics processing units (GPUs). NVIDIA does more than just provide services for computer games. It also has a successful cloud computing division, aimed at clients with artificial intelligence and scientific computing needs.

2021 saw the acquisition of DeepMap, a start-up specializing in high-definition maps for use in autonomous vehicles, but also fresh pressure from competitors including Apple and Intel, who are due to launch GPUs of their own. Intel remains the group's closest rival, with NVIDIA narrowly winning a 2019 bidding war against them to acquire the Israeli ethernet company Mellanox, for $6.8 billion. In 2020, NVIDIA announced its intention to buy the British chip-manufacturer Arm Ltd., a deal which has been scrutinized heavily by the regulator.

In 1999, NVIDIA began trading on the NASDAQ exchange at $12 per share. NVIDIA is a constituent stock of the S&P500 index and accordingly is popular with large institutional investors, particularly Vanguard, Blackrock, and Fidelity.