The business world is increasingly banking on artificial intelligence to be the next big thing, and has found itself turning to one maker of computer chips in particular — Nvidia — to power the revolution. On Tuesday, Nvidia shares were up another 5%, leading the Nasdaq stock index, which represents technology firms, to a new all-time high. Over the past 12 months, Nvidia shares are up some 180%. What makes Nvidia so special? Founded in 1993 — famously, over a meal at Denny’s — Nvidia designs a special kind of programmable computer chip. For decades, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices had dominated the U.S. chip sector. But those companies specialized in producing CPUs — central processing units, which serve as the foundation for basic computing and software processes. Nvidia, meanwhile, specialized in graphics processing units (GPUs). As their name suggests, GPUs are better able to render images, which meant that…
