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Case Study

Nvidia: Winning the deep-learning leadership battle

By Michael D. Watkins, Lisa Simone Duke, Sonia Tan, Christopher Read and Rathan Kinhal

19 pages

May 2019

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Reference: IMD-7-2036

The case charts the evolution of NVIDIA, the market leading producer of graphics processing units (GPU), from its beginnings to becoming a leader at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) development. Founded in 1993, the company designed processors for gaming, professional visualization, data centers and automotive markets. In 2019, NVIDIA’s vision was to be at the forefront of the virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence and deep learning arenas. Though the company had an impressive growth rate, there were increasing competitive threats against NVIDIA’s dominance in deep learning. The case ends by asking whether NVIDIA can retain its leading position and what it has to do to sustain it.

Learning Objective

How companies can identify and exploit opportunities in adjacent product fields. Is good planning the most important? How much of a company’s strategy evolution is planned, and how much is emergent?
The challenges of becoming a leader in a new technology and then sustaining that leadership position in the face of accelerating technological development.

Keywords

Strategy, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Deep Learning, eLearning, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Graphics Processing Unit Computing, Video Game, Self-driving Car, Cloud Computing, Graphic Card

Settings

World/global, United States of America
Nvidia, Information Technology, Computer Services, Materials, Semiconductors, Automotive
1993-2018

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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