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Today CUDA is one of the most important elements of NVIDIA's success in the world of AI, but few remember how risky that decision was at the beginning. The company bet everything on the development of a technology that for years brought no profits. Costs rose, margins fell, and the future was uncertain. Nevertheless, NVIDIA did not back down from the project and consistently developed its approach to GPUs as a computing platform. Now it is clear that this was one of the most important moves in the history of the industry.
CUDA could have ruined the company
NVIDIA introduced CUDA in 2006 as a way to expand the capabilities of graphic cards beyond gaming. The problem was that it was a decision that significantly increased costs, with no guarantee of return. As Jensen Huang admitted, the company raised costs by as much as 50%, and its market value fell to around 1.5 billion dollars. At that moment, it was a move balancing on the edge of survival.
The goal was to transform graphic cards into tools for general computation. With technologies like programmable shaders and support for FP32 computations, GPUs began to be used in completely new areas. This opened doors for scientists and engineers who started using GPUs for tasks requiring immense computational power. GeForce cards played a key role, reaching millions of users. It was these cards that caused CUDA to begin spreading and building an ecosystem. As Jensen Huang emphasizes, it was GeForce that “built the home” on which all of NVIDIA stands today.
Effects Came Only After Years
The most interesting thing is that CUDA began to yield real benefits only after about 10 years from its introduction. This shows the long-term strategy that the company adopted. Today, CUDA is one of the main reasons why NVIDIA dominates the AI and high-performance computing market. The history of CUDA is an example of a decision that could have ended in disaster but ultimately changed the entire industry. NVIDIA has transformed from a company primarily associated with gaming into a leader in the world of artificial intelligence.
source: wccftech.com
