When did Nvidia go public? That’s a question more investors than ever are asking after Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) became the first chipmaker in history to reach a staggering $4 trillion market value this week. Nvidia, which went public back on January 22, 1999, has since transformed itself from a niche graphics card maker into the backbone of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
The historic journey that answers when did Nvidia go public starts in the late ‘90s tech boom. Back then, Nvidia priced its IPO at $12 per share, raising about $42 million — a small figure by today’s mega-IPO standards. Investors who asked when did Nvidia go public back then could hardly have imagined the same company would one day eclipse tech giants like Microsoft and Apple in total market capitalization.
This week, Nvidia’s stock closed at a record high, pushing its market cap near the $4 trillion mark. So if you’re wondering, when did Nvidia go public and how did it get here, the story is all about how AI transformed the semiconductor landscape. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 supercharged demand for high-powered AI chips — and Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) became the industry standard for both training and running massive AI models.
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993, recently spoke at Computex 2025 in Taipei, highlighting how the company’s early decision to invest in CUDA, a software platform that lets developers harness the full potential of GPUs, gave Nvidia a unique edge. That’s another crucial chapter in understanding when did Nvidia go public and how it evolved into an AI powerhouse.
While Nvidia’s stock did face bumps along the way — such as a $600 million market cap drop earlier this year due to emerging competition — the company’s chips remain critical for tech titans like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Tesla. These companies rely on Nvidia hardware to build massive cloud-based AI services, keeping the demand strong despite geopolitical hurdles. Even export bans on advanced chips to China have yet to slow Nvidia’s momentum significantly.
For long-term investors reflecting on when did Nvidia go public, it’s hard not to marvel at the return on investment. If you had invested $1,000 in Nvidia stock during its IPO, you’d be sitting on millions today. Nvidia’s journey from an IPO price of $12 to a stock price that has surged by more than 20% in just the first half of 2025 showcases its resilience and strategic vision.
Today, Nvidia’s massive valuation also reflects new opportunities in “sovereign AI,” where countries build their own national AI data centers with Nvidia hardware to maintain data privacy and technological independence. With countries like Saudi Arabia and multiple European nations investing billions in Nvidia’s chips, the company’s future looks just as promising as its past.
For anyone researching when did Nvidia go public, it’s clear that Nvidia’s IPO was only the starting point. The real story is how a small Silicon Valley startup turned a single graphics card into the world’s leading AI compute platform — an evolution driven by innovation, strategic pivots, and an insatiable global appetite for AI.
As Nvidia rides the AI boom, the question of when did Nvidia go public will keep popping up, especially for new investors hoping to catch the next big wave in tech. One thing’s for certain: if history is any guide, Nvidia’s best days might still lie ahead — all from that first bold step onto the Nasdaq more than 25 years ago.