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The giant chipmaker has transformed its annual developer conference from an academic event into a who’s who gathering for the future of artificial intelligence.
March 18, 2025Updated 11:00 a.m. ET
In 2009, when Nvidia held its first developer conference, the event was something of a science fair. Dozens of academics filled a San Jose, Calif., hotel decorated with white poster boards of computer research. Jensen Huang, the chipmaker’s chief executive, roamed the floor like a judge.
This year, Nvidia’s developer conference is far different.
More than 25,000 people are expected to congregate on Tuesday at the event, known as Nvidia GTC. The crowds will fill a National Hockey League arena to hear a speech about the future of artificial intelligence from Mr. Huang, who has been nicknamed “A.I. Jesus.” Nvidia, the world’s leading developer of A.I. chips, has also wrapped San Jose in the company’s neon green and black colors, shutting down city streets and sending hotel prices soaring as high as $1,800 a night.
A who’s who of industry leaders is expected to attend, including Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell Technologies; Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co-founder of DreamWorks and WndrCo, a venture capital firm; and Bill McDermott, the chief executive of ServiceNow.
“Nvidia makes the chips that are oxygen for A.I., so people are on their toes to learn about their latest and greatest,” said Ali Farhadi, the chief executive of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, who is also attending. “The breadth of technology on display there is going to be phenomenal.”
The transformation of Nvidia’s conference from an academic event to the Super Bowl of A.I. — a weeklong showcase of robots, large language models and autonomous cars — is symbolic of the company’s metamorphosis. As A.I. has gone mainstream, customers have clamored for Nvidia’s graphics processing units, the powerful chips that help create the technology. That has propelled the chipmaker to a nearly $3 trillion valuation, up from $8 billion in 2009.
Yet Nvidia’s ascent has raised questions. Generative A.I., which can answer questions, create images and write code, has been celebrated for its potential to improve businesses and create trillions of dollars in economic value. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and others are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to make that idea a reality.
