How did gold become a major component in Nvidia's signature GPUs?

Nvidia has witnessed one of the most stunning success stories in recent years.. But before we get into the details, let’s have a quick history lesson.

Nvidia was founded in 1993, and gained quick fame by producing GPUs for video games, which helped particularly with 3D display.

However, with recent sudden improvement in AI technology, the company’s GPUs found incredible applications, with fourth quarter earnings in 2023 surging by 265%. 

Just a decade ago, the company was valued at $10 billion, before surging to $50 billion in 2016, and as of 2024, it reached a valuation of $2 trillion, becoming the third largest publicly traded company in the world. 

In many cases, some people tend to put financial markets and especially the tech sector into a separate metal bucket away from the usual investments into value stores, such as gold and silver.

However in many cases, such precious metals are highly connected to tech. 

Gold for example is a major component in Nvidia products, alongside tin, tungsten, and others. 

Gold has proven once again its excellent industrial applications, especially with conduction and its chemical properties, which have proven useful in chips and internal computers keys and wires, despite the high cost. 

And as competition surges for AI-related GPUs, their prices are expected to surge and the direct link with gold prices will decline, which means companies will be able to utilize gold in GPUs with a freer hand. 

That’s why some inventive investors are betting on the combination of gold and AI, and it has to be rather ironic that one of the oldest and most traditional value storage items such as gold is now directly linked with the most cutting edge industry.