From a scrappy underdog to overnight AI success: Inside Nvidia’s 30-yr ride

Nvidia Corp. was once a scrappy underdog. Founded in a Silicon Valley diner, the designer of graphics chips faced death more than once before finally realizing its founders’ vision of standalone semiconductors used specifically for displaying images on a screen.

Having already surpassed storied titans Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the company’s market capitalization touched $1 trillion last week. Graphics didn’t get it there, though. A bet that its approach to number-crunching would be a perfect fit for the nascent artificial intelligence sector ensured that when startups and major tech companies finally caught the wave, Nvidia was there to sell them high-priced chips perfect for the job.