Nvidia GTC

The first GTC was held from September 30 to October 2, 2009 at the Fairmont San Jose hotel and attracted roughly 1,500 attendees.{{cite news |last1=Robertson |first1=Barbara |title=Technology Feast: Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference Serves Up Appetizing Possibilities |url=https://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/Web-Exclusives/2009/Technology-Feast-Nvidia-s-GPU-Technology-Confere.aspx |work=Computer Graphics World |date=October 5, 2009}}{{cite web |title=Nvidia GPU Technology Conference Schedule |url=https://www.nvidia.com/content/gtc/documents/gtc_schedule.pdf |website=Nvidia |date=September 25, 2009}} The first GTC was so wildly popular that it ended up hosting "several hundred more people" than expected, forcing Nvidia to "shut down registration" at two weeks before the conference. The New York Times later described the atmosphere at the first GTC as akin to a science fair, where academics presented their work on posters.{{cite news |last1=Mickle |first1=Tripp |title=Nvidia Is Hosting the Super Bowl of A.I. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/technology/nvidia-gtc-conference-ai.html |work=The New York Times |date=March 18, 2025 |url-access=subscription}}

Since GTC 2009, Nvidia has used the much larger San Jose Convention Center as GTC's primary venue. Along with Nvidia, GTC's size and prominence greatly increased during the AI boom.

According to Nvidia, Huang starts to plan his keynote address about two months before each GTC, to identify what announcements he will make and what things he will present or demonstrate on the stage. But Huang "speaks extemporaneously" while on stage, does not use a script, and does not rehearse in advance.

GTC 2018 attracted over 8,400 attendees. Due to the COVID pandemic of 2020, GTC 2020 was converted to a digital event and drew roughly 59,000 registrants. The 2021 GTC keynote, which was streamed on YouTube on April 12, included a portion that was made with CGI using the Nvidia Omniverse real-time rendering platform. Due to the photorealism of the event, including a model of CEO Jensen Huang, news outlets reported not being able to discern that a portion of the keynote was CGI until later revealed in a blog post on August 11.{{Cite web|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/jensens-kitchen-is-a-lie-nvidia-reveals-gtc-2021-keynote-nearly-100-synthetic|title=Jensen's Kitchen was a lie: Nvidia reveals GTC 2021 keynote nearly 100% fake|date=12 August 2021}}

GTC 2025 drew about 25,000 attendees to San Jose. To accommodate demand, Huang delivered his keynote address down the street at a hockey arena, SAP Center, which can hold about 17,000 people.{{cite news |last1=Cosgrove |first1=Emma |title=Inside Nvidia's annual developer festival, where AI meets Denny's pancakes and Taiwan-style night markets |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-gtc-2025-ceo-jensen-huang-ai-landscape-san-jose-2025-3 |work=Business Insider |date=March 19, 2025 |url-access=subscription}} By then, GTC and its host company had shifted focus so sharply from graphics to artificial intelligence that Huang himself called GTC the "Super Bowl of A.I."{{cite news |last1=Rosenbush |first1=Steven |last2=Bousquette |first2=Isabelle |title=Nvidia CEO Says AI Computing Needs to Surge 100-Fold |url=https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvidia-ceo-says-ai-computing-needs-to-surge-100-fold-at-ai-super-bowl-event-14c38221 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=March 18, 2025 |url-access=subscription}} Nvidia wrapped Downtown San Jose in its "neon green and black colors". Demand for San Jose hotel rooms drove prices as high as $2,500 per night. One sign that GTC had evolved from a programmer-oriented developer conference into an executive-oriented business conference for networking and negotiating AI deals was that it took 35 minutes just to get into a nearby building set aside for business meetings. There were long lines everywhere inside the San Jose Convention Center, meaning that GTC may be getting too big for the center. In a joint promotion with Nvidia, Denny's parked its Mobile Diner outside the SAP Center before Huang's keynote address on March 18 and gave out free food samples to celebrate the fact that Nvidia was founded in a booth in a Denny's diner.{{cite news |last1=Pizarro |first1=Sal |title=Nvidia GTC: Denny's gives techies a breakfast treat at keynote |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/03/18/nvidia-gtc-dennys-gives-techies-a-breakfast-treat-at-keynote/ |work=The Mercury News |date=March 18, 2025 |url-access=subscription}} On March 18, Nvidia also held a night market inspired by Huang's well-known affection for Taiwanese night markets. Thus, on March 18, hard-core attendees had to survive a grueling 12-hour schedule of events to get the full GTC experience.

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Category:Artificial intelligence conferences

Category:International business conferences