Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta… we’re all familiar with the big names in the tech industry, but now a new company is making the headlines: US company Nvidia produces the chips used to train and operate generative AI. The company has soared in value: in June, it became the most valuable company in the world, worth $3.34 trillion.
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Rapid ascension
Founded in 1993, Nvidia Corporation is headquartered in Santa Clara in California. Originally, it produced chips that process computer graphics, particularly for computer games. However, it then changed focus, becoming a dominant player in the AI chip market. It produced the ten thousand chips needed to program OpenAI’s mega-successful chatbot and virtual assistant ChatGPT, which is credited with starting what’s known as the AI Boom.
This so-called boom has generated enormous interest and investment in the AI industry, as well as demand for the chips that Nvidia produces. In the first six months of this year, Nvidia soared in value. However, the company faces some major challenges. These include competition from rivals in the tech industry, as well as the attention of US regulators, who are reportedly planning to start an investigation into Big Tech — including Nvidia — over its dominance in the AI industry.
Rock star status
As Nvidia has become more prominent in recent months, so too has Jensen Huang, its co-founder, president and CEO, who is worth an estimated $120 billion and has the status of a rock star in his native country. Born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1963, Huang moved to Thailand with his parents when he was five, and he and his brother were sent to live in the US with an uncle when he was nine. Although he and his company are based in Santa Clara, Huang has continued to invest in his native country, which produces the AI chips that Nvidia designs.
On a recent visit to Taipei, the sixty-one-year-old, wearing his signature leather jacket, was followed not only by paparazzi but also by fans taking selfies and asking him for his autograph. Known as Jensanity, Huang’s celebrity status in Taiwan has come to define him. Recently, one of his colleagues in the tech world, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, compared him to one of the world’s biggest pop stars, describing him on social media as “Taylor Swift, but for tech.”