10 Tech News Stories You May Have Missed This Year

3 of 11

2. NVIDIA Doubles Down on AI-Driven Computing

If InformationWeek published a "gee-whiz" list of chip companies, my vote would place NVIDIA at the top of the list. I've had other chip loves before including the Motorola 68000 series, Intel X86 series including Pentium and TriQuint's gallium arsenide chips. What's gets me totally stoked about NVIDIA chips (GPUs) are their impact on our evolving digital experience expectations.

Of course, NVIDIA is also an AI company -- one in a growing universe. In September, the company announced it was acquiring Arm Limited from Softbank for $40 billion. The combination of the Arm CPU and NVIDIA AI will result in AI computing capabilities for cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars, robotics and edge IoT. We can't wait to see what that's all about, especially because it has nothing to do with the Kardashians.

Even without NVIDIA, it's obvious that dumb devices are out, and smart devices are in. However, a convergence strategy alone is way too boring if NVIDIA's history is any indication. I mean, why follow a trend when you can create one?

3 of 11