NVIDIA Corporation’s (Nasdaq: NVDA) name was derived from the Latin word “invidia,” meaning “envy”. Company pioneers believed their product’s visual experience would make competitors “green with envy”.
NVIDIA was founded by Jensen Huang (the company’s current CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, in 1993 following a meeting at a Denny’s restaurant in San Jose, California. Priem originally wanted to call the company “GXNV”, referring to the “next version” of the GX graphics chips he had worked on at Sun Microsystems.
Both Malachowsky and Priem also considered calling the company “NVision”, but that name was already taken by the manufacturer of toilet paper. They kept the “NV”, eventually combining it with “invidia”.
Sega Corporation, the Japanese video game company, was an early NVIDIA investor, investing $5 million in the company. NVIDIA went public on January 22, 1999.
Sega sold its NVIDIA stake shortly thereafter for $15 million. NVIDIA shares have skyrocketed more than 500,000% since going public to its recent price of $207 (split adjusted).
On October 29, 2025, NVIDIA became the first company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion.
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