Nvidia Celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the World’s First GPU with Nasdaq

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Nvidia, the world leader in artificial intelligence computing, celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the release of the world’s first graphics processing unit (GPU) GeForce 256, at Nasdaq MarketSite on Friday, October 11. The development of the GPU marked a critical milestone that would lay the foundation for breakthroughs in AI. “It started the revolution of an accelerated computing processor that augments the CPU to do incredible things,” said Jensen Huang, Founder, President, and CEO of Nvidia.

In honor of the occasion, Jensen Huang, Founder, President, and CEO of Nvidia rang Nasdaq’s Opening Bell hosted by Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman.

Nvidia’s GeForce 256 was released in August of 1999, shortly after Nvidia went public on Nasdaq the same year.  It revolutionized gaming and computing by offloading tasks from the CPU, unlocking the computational potential of software and AI.

“Our vision was that every workload can't possibly run perfectly on a general-purpose processor, that if we added something and augmented the general-purpose processor to the CPU with something like a GPU, we could perform incredible things to important applications that we would care about,” said Mr. Huang.

“Nvidia’s technology not only changed the world of gaming forever, but also began what we now know as the AI Revolution,” said Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman, addressing the Nvidia team during the company’s Opening Bell celebration. “Today, Nvidia's GPUs are at the core of AI research and applications, including healthcare, self-driving cars, natural language processing and scientific discovery.”

The occasion comes as Nasdaq celebrates its own 25^th anniversary of MarketSite’s opening in Times Square. From its early days as the first all-electronic stock exchange to today as a global hub for innovation, and home of the world’s most innovative companies, Nasdaq continues to welcome innovators like Jensen and Nvidia who are advancing the economy and technological landscape.

“Nasdaq is incredibly proud to be your partner, and we look forward to supporting your continued innovation for many, many years to come,” Friedman said.

See more highlights from Nvidia’s Opening Bell here.