All about Nvidia GTC and how it evolved into the 'Super Bowl' of the tech industry

• Nvidia GTC is the chipmaker's weeklong developer conference, and it's become the "Super Bowl" of AI.
• GTC features a keynote from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, along with over 1,000 sessions about AI.
• In 2025, 25,000 came to the event in San Jose, and 300,000 attended virtually.

Nvidia GTC has been referred to as both the "Woodstock" and "Super Bowl" of AI.

Nvidia has been hosting GTC, which stands for GPU Technology Conference, since 2009. The company held its first annual weeklong developer conference at San Jose's Fairmont Hotel. In its early days, the conference focused on advancements in the semiconductor industry and AI.

Over time, the event has broadened to include other areas of technology advancements, such as robotics, autonomous vehicles, and quantum computing. It's also become a wider attraction, filling the size of a sports arena and taking over the city of San Jose with green banners and Nvidia GTC panels.

"People have noticed that the feeling of GTC has really changed," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a March press conference.

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, Nvidia's stock has soared as its chip architecture has fueled the AI revolution and provided the computing power needed to run large language models. Even if you're not deeply immersed in AI or computing, the event can still be worthwhile for trend watchers. With over 1,000 sessions, the conference delves into how AI is set to reshape a number of industries and the broader workforce.

What is Nvidia GTC?

Top researchers, employees, and executives from the world's largest companies, cutting-edge startups, and leading educational institutions come to Nvidia GTC to watch how AI is transforming industries like robotics, healthcare, and cybersecurity.

Nvidia GTC takes place in San Jose, California, and in 2025, it brought roughly 25,000 attendees in person and 300,000 virtually. That's a jump from the year prior when the number was estimated to be around 11,000 people in person.

Tickets in 2025 ranged from $495 to $2,295, depending on the level of access. You can also watch GTC for free by signing up for the virtual pass and selecting individual sessions from the various scheduled panels and events. Nvidia says on its website that it offers discounts for groups and attendees working in education, nonprofits, and government.

Nvidia GTC in 2025 took place from March 17 to 21. Huang's keynote took place at the SAP Center, but GTC events also take place at a number of other locations in the area, including at the McEnery Convention Center, the Tech Interactive Museum, and the Plaza de César Chávez night market, which features street food and other items from local vendors.

Past notable GTC speakers and sessions

Huang's annual keynote is a must-watch at GTC.

During the 2025 keynote, the Nvidia founder discussed what's next in agentic AI, robotics, and accelerated computing. Huang released details about the next-generation Blackwell Ultra architecture, which is expected to launch later in 2025, and the Vera Rubin platform, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2026.

Huang also showed off Nvidia's new partnership with Google DeepMind and Disney Research with a robot called "Blue," which had two Nvidia computers inside it. The partnership is focused on building an open-source robotics physics engine called Newton.

Some other notable topics discussed in GTC's 2025 sessions included quantum computing, the future of AI models and the evolving computational landscape, the rise of humanoid robots, leveraging AI agents in different industries, predictive intelligence, and physical AI.

In 2025, Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta and professor at NYU, spoke at GTC. The conference also featured Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch, and OpenAI research scientist Noam Brown.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also appeared at GTC in the past. In 2015, Huang interviewed the billionaire about the future of automotive technology and self-driving cars. The billionaire also discussed potential AI safety concerns.

Past Nvidia conference topics

Nvidia AI products are often unveiled during GTC. Here are some of the highlights from the chipmaker's former developer conferences:

• 2024: Huang unveiled the next-generation version of the Hopper GPU, Nvidia's Blackwell architecture. Nvidia also announced the expansion of Omniverse Cloud APIs and Project GR00T, a foundational model for humanoid robots.
• 2023: At its annual developer conference, Nvidia announced that its Hopper H100 was finally in full production and Huang unveiled other new products and services.
• 2022: Nvidia announced the availability of the H100 GPU. Huang said Hopper H100 was "the biggest generational leap ever." The roughly $40,000 chip was named after the computer scientist Grace Hopper and it helps power LLMs.
• 2021: Nvidia introduced its first data center central processing unit, Grace, designed to tackle heavy data workloads. Huang also announced advancements in Nvidia Omniverse and enterprise computing with Nvidia Dgx systems.
• 2020: Nvidia unveiled the A100 Tensor Core GPU, designed to accelerate AI and high-performance computing. Nvidia also announced new AI technologies like Maxine, TensorRT 7.2, and Merlin Open Beta.