In 1997, with Nvidia weeks from insolvency, Jensen Huang ordered mass production of the RIVA 128 graphics chip — a design tested entirely in a simulator — betting the company's remaining cash on a single tape-out. Huang recalled on the Acquired podcast that Nvidia had about six months of cash left and could afford only one manufacturing run, so the team used an emulator purchased with roughly half of the company's remaining funds to prototype the chip virtually. The finished product supported only eight of 32 DirectX blend modes, but Nvidia persuaded developers to work within those constraints. The RIVA 128 shipped in August 1997 with just one month of payroll remaining and sold approximately one million units in its first four months, rescuing the company and paving the way for its 1999 IPO. Today, Nvidia is worth around $4.7 trillion and has become the backbone of modern AI.
NVIDIA CorporationThe RIVA 128 chip saved Nvidia from insolvency and laid the foundation for its future success.