Many investors can easily identify
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) as a specialized semiconductor company. The company launched its first product, a 2D/3D graphics card, in 1995. Later that year, NVIDIA proudly became the provider of 3D graphics cards to Sega's Virtual Fighter, the first 3D game to run on NVIDIA graphics. The company invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) and announced an initial public offering (IPO) at $12 four years later.
Fast forward to today, and the company is the clear leader and innovator in GPUs -- not only for gaming, but across high performance computing, data centers, autonomous vehicles, and professional graphics markets. The stock price currently sits above $500, having undergone four splits in its history.