NVIDIA Strategy and Globalization

Introduction to NVIDIA and their mission statement

Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Curtis Priem, and Chris Malachowsky, Nvidia is a company known for their development and design of integrated circuits, graphic processors, and other multimedia software. Their mission statement is to: “make unique contributions to solving some of the world's most stimulating technology problems – in industries ranging from gaming to scientific exploration.” (NVIDIA). The company is a leading force in the computer and graphics industry, and has headquarters stationed in Santa Clara, California.  

Nvidia is split into two operating segments, one of which focuses on graphics, while the other offers computer processing and networking. The graphics segment centers on the development of graphic processing units (GPUs) for gaming and 3D rendering applications. On the other hand, the computer processing and networking segment generates developments on accelerated computing and research on systems for artificial intelligence.  

After developing their first product in 1995, the NVI, Nvidia continues to dominate the tech industry with their revolutionary innovations. They maintain their position as the leaders of the market through competitive advantage where differentiation and responsiveness are the strategies used that give them a competitive edge. Nvidia’s technology has surpassed their competitors, making them different and the fastest at developing new software and products.

With these strategies in place, Nvidia has seen success in its growth.  

In recent years, Nvidia has been turning their attention to the development of artificial intelligence software and hardware. It is common knowledge that artificial intelligence is a world of endless possibilities, and Nvidia has been capitalizing on emerging industry trends. According to a Forbes article, “...in the first half of 2020, AI-related sales topped $2.8 billion. In fact, more than 90% of neural network training runs on Nvidia GPUs today” (McBride). Nvidia’s computer chips are the core of artificial intelligence that we see and read about today. In fact, they have even branched out to making chips for self-driving cars. With their innovation and constant growth, Nvidia remains a powerhouse in the computer industry.

Since the release of their first commercially available graphics card, Nvidia has been the gold standard for both consumer and enterprise graphics processing units (GPU) due to their best-in-class processing performance. In 1993, the founders of Nvidia identified the then emerging phenomenon of video games as a killer app. They recognized that video games were computationally intensive and selling fast, which are two conditions according to CEO Jensen Huang "don't happen very often." (Nusca) With the recent release of their GeForce 30 series product line, they remain the most powerful consumer graphics cards on the market. The 30 series were designed specifically for gaming, making them worse at 3D modelling and AI applications, but leaving them unparalleled in terms of raw gaming performance. (Warren) From an enterprise perspective, they manufacture GPUs and AI processing nodes for both data center and 3D rendering applications. The Quadro RTX product line is optimized for 3D modeling and processing, making them ideally suited for computer aided design (CAD) programs and 3D animation.

In both consumer and enterprise fields, there are no realistic competitors for their product offerings. Customers seek out Nvidia hardware for their performance and the customer service that Nvidia board partners provide. Simply put, when shopping for a GPU for any purpose, be it gaming, 3D rendering, AI, machine learning, or just raw computational power for tasks like cryptocurrency mining or password hash cracking, there is no competition to Nvidia products.

NVIDIA's Graphics and Computer Processing and Networking Segments

There is very little public information on Nvidia’s internal project/program management techniques and methodologies. However, relevant information can still be gleaned through job listings and their general approach towards product delivery. For example, listings for software program managers list Jira, which is a bug tracking system designed for Agile software development. This suggests that at least for software departments in Nvidia, product managers probably leverage some type of Agile or Scrum development process. For program managers under their hardware departments, multiple listings reference the use of New Product Introduction (NPI) processes. The NPI process is essentially a collaborative effort between a central program manager and several key stakeholder departments who are responsible for different deliverables geared towards final product development. A slide deck published by a former Nvidia Senior GPU Architect titled “MODELING CUDA COMPUTE APPLICATIONS BY CRITICAL PATH”. (Zhao, Kraus and Wu) demonstrates how Nvidia uses the concept of critical path within their software execution flows. While this isn’t an explicit endorsement of critical path method (CPM) for project management, the acknowledgement of this methodology, as well as incorporating it into core product functionality, suggests the perceived value of CPM within Nvidia. 

As a tech-based organization, Nvidia’s product design methodology is strongly based on innovation. Every product developed by Nvidia is not only designed to meet consumer needs but informed by emerging changes in the industry. This is how Nvidia builds competitive advantage through their product design methodology. (Kim et al., 2020). To remain competitive in the current market, the product design process must integrate multiple aspects including market trends, consumer demands, product changes, and innovations in other fields. Nvidia uses the recent Industry 4.0 product design method to consistently produce high-product GPUs as well as other computer chips.  

Covid19 has greatly affected many organizations worldwide. Nvidia company also has been affected by the global pandemic in terms of supply chain but has also improved on the quality of services provided by the company. As far as technology goes, Nvidia has collaborated with scientists and researchers throughout the world to create vaccinations and therapies, to automate hospitals, and to provide medical personnel with new tools to help them save lives, all in the sake of saving lives. Small autonomous robots to the most powerful supercomputer in the United States were use by NVIDIA computers (Gupta, et al., p 1-9). NVIDIA AI software was utilized to sequence the viral genome, develop tests, forecast patient oxygen demands in the ICU, and even optimize and turbo-charge clinical trials when every second mattered.