This Graphics Card Company Accidentally Became a Crypto Powerhouse

Key Points

• Nvidia is known for its high-quality GPUs.

• Originally used for gaming, GPUs later caught on with crypto miners because of their processing power.

• They now play a key role in AI training and development.

• 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›

When Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) started in 1993, it was a gaming company focused on graphics processing. It would go on to design the first graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999, the same year the company went public.

More recently, Nvidia has had a role in the cryptocurrency market, and become an artificial intelligence (AI) giant. Gaming makes up less than 10% of its revenue. The pivot has helped Nvidia become the largest company in the world and is a demonstration of how quality businesses can evolve with the latest technological innovations.

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Image source: Nvidia.

What makes Nvidia's GPUs special?

Nvidia's success comes from its GPUs -- semiconductors capable of parallel processing, breaking large processes into smaller tasks and handling them simultaneously. The original purpose of Nvidia GPUs was to accelerate graphics rendering in video games. One of its most notable early clients was Microsoft, which used the Nvidia GeForce 3 in the original Xbox.

In 2006, Nvidia took a crucial step forward with its GPUs when it launched Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), a technology that enables GPUs to use parallel processing for more than just graphics. With CUDA programming, developers can use Nvidia's GPUs to code and make applications. Because CUDA incorporates parallel processing, it provides faster processing and makes better use of computing resources.

CUDA wasn't an immediate hit for Nvidia. But Nvidia invested heavily in it, regardless, and that would end up paying off in a big way.

How Nvidia entered the crypto market

The cryptocurrency market started in 2009 with the launch of Bitcoin. Bitcoin also pioneered a system called proof of work to validate transactions. Anyone who wanted to be part of the process could download Bitcoin's code and use a computing device to solve cryptographic problems. Finding the solution to the problem was proof of the computing work being done. Devices that solved problems first received Bitcoin as a reward.

This is called Bitcoin mining, and at first, people did it on their computers. They soon realized that more powerful computing devices would increase their profitability, so they started using Nvidia GPUs to mine Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Miners also found that they could earn even more by connecting multiple GPUs to the same motherboard, and GPU demand skyrocketed.

Nvidia's ties to cryptocurrency aren't without controversy. Investors filed a class action lawsuit in 2018 alleging that Nvidia failed to disclose that crypto mining was a major source of its GPU revenue growth. Nvidia paid a $5.5 million fine to the SEC in 2022 to settle charges about the matter, but the lawsuit is ongoing.

Crypto mining doesn't make up a significant portion of Nvidia's business anymore, in part because GPUs aren't a competitive way to mine Bitcoin or other types of cryptocurrency. There are now Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners that have far more computing power. Some hobbyist miners still use GPUs, but the ones who want to make money use ASICs.

Becoming the leading AI company

Crypto miners drove demand for Nvidia GPUs, but what unlocked even more growth for the company was AI technology. Researchers started using Nvidia GPUs for AI development in 2011. A year later, Alex Krizhevsky used Nvidia GPUs and CUDA to train a neural network, AlexNet. It won the ImageNet image recognition competition, showing the effectiveness of GPU-trained machine learning models.

In 2016, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang donated a supercomputer with eight GPUs to OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. The massive success of ChatGPT upon its release in 2022 was another sign of how powerful Nvidia GPUs are.

The AI boom and Nvidia's role in it have led to incredible financial results. It has reported year-over-year revenue growth exceeding 50% for nine consecutive quarters. Most recently, it hit $46.7 billion in revenue for the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year, which ended on July 27, 2025. Data center revenue, which includes corporate AI spending, accounted for 88% ($41.1 billion) of that. Gaming revenue was $4.3 billion.

There weren't many people who saw Nvidia going from a gaming company to an important player in both the crypto and AI markets. Its story demonstrates why companies with substantial competitive edges, in this case being the top GPU company, can become highly profitable investments.

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Lyle Daly has positions in Bitcoin and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.