The biggest company in the world is Nvidia, and it’s been making the same product since 1993: a specialized computer chip called a GPU, or a graphics processing unit. Those chips do all the fancy, complicated math needed to display images, videos, and 3D graphics onto our screens.

Back in the day, if you wanted to play “state-of-the-art” PC games like Unreal, Quake, or Half-Life, you likely bought one of Nvidia’s GPUs (more commonly called graphics cards at the time).

“If you were a really serious gamer back in like 1998, you would be building your own high powered PC at home. You’d be up to your ears in circuit boards and soldering equipment,” Robbie Wheland, a tech and business reporter for The Wall Street Journal told Today, Explained co-host Noel King. “And you’d be buying one of Nvidia’s graphics cards, and putting that into your awesome high powered gaming computer that you would play on the internet.”

Today, though, Nvidia’s product isn’t so niche. Their chips are more advanced, and they are now the hardware powering the artificial intelligence boom. “Think ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, or Claude,” Wheland said.

Because Nvidia is now essential to the tech sector, that has made the company very important to the well-being of the entire American economy; the stock market can swing on whether Nvidia releases a good earnings report or a bad one.

The company, and its founder Jensen Huang, have also become powerful players within American politics, foreign relations, and international diplomacy. Wheland broke down the story behind the company’s rise, its business dealings, and the founder’s friendship with President Donald Trump on Today, Explained.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation,........

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