Examining the Current Status of Metaverse-Related Companies.

Enterprise Status Report① NVIDIA Outlook. This series systematically analyzes the current status, performance, and strategy of metaverse-related companies. First: NVIDIA, the indispensable presence in the metaverse market. NVIDIA (founded April 5, 1993 by Jen-Hsun Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem) started as a graphics chip manufacturer, pivoting from CPU competition with Intel. The 1997 RIVA 128 graphics chipset became a global hit; in the 2000s NVIDIA and AMD split the graphics chipset market. CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture, 2006) — the strategic masterstroke: a parallel computing platform and programming model enabling GPU utilization for diverse computing tasks beyond graphics; allowing thousands of simultaneous small calculations for AI training, scientific simulation, and complex mathematics. CUDA became the AI training platform standard as deep learning emerged in the 2010s — creating an enormous switching cost moat as developers built expertise in CUDA-based workflows. Financial milestone: NVIDIA surpassed $1 trillion market cap in June 2023, then $2 trillion in February 2024, driven by AI semiconductor demand. Current position: dominant AI training hardware provider with 70-90% GPU market share for AI workloads; strategic pivot toward full-stack AI platform (hardware + software + services); Omniverse platform for metaverse/digital twin applications; DGX systems for enterprise AI; automotive AI (DRIVE platform). Key risks: geopolitical exposure from US-China chip export controls limiting China market; AMD and Intel developing competitive AI accelerators; Google, Amazon, Microsoft developing proprietary AI chips reducing NVIDIA dependency; the "picks and shovels" advantage of selling to all AI companies may be eroded as those companies become competitors.