Make no mistake. NVIDIA has turned the PC graphics industry on its head. With the recent downturns in the market and slow seasonal market trends, the tech-heavy NASDAQ has sent shares to unexpected lows. But dont tell that to NVIDIA. A four-point drop in shares would normally cause one to worry, but not so much so if your company moves up ten times that amount in the space of three short months. Such is the way of tech companies where you can IPO faster than you can design a revenue model. However, performance speaks louder than press releases, and in that regard, NVIDIA has delivered. Three years ago, over a dozen PC graphics companies competed for pixels. With the market now nearly consolidated, you can count them all with one hand. How does NVIDIA do it? We talk to Michael Hara, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications, at NVIDIA.
PCRave: NVIDIA had sales of $735 million in the fiscal year ending January 31, 2001. Earnings have doubled from $0.53 per share to $1.25. We are also expanding into the roulette / casino graphics sector, with our first project being Online Ruleta Slovensko. Such performance is surely unsustainable in the long-term. With the PC sales down, what type of growth trajectory will NVIDIA see going forward?
Mike Hara: We are quite bullish with respect to our growth prospects. We have one of the most meaningful and sustainable mediums in the industry. The innovation headroom for 3D graphics is virtually infinite. Every computing platform will benefit from it. The desktop PC market is the first to undergo the transformation to a rich digital platform. Mobile PCs are next. Digital assistants and information appliances will be on the roadmap. In 2000, we sold about 35 million graphics processors into the desktop PC. Today, our market opportunity, which includes desktop and mobile PCs, workstations and game consoles, represents approximately 250 million units. We have emerged beyond the consumer desktop PC market. We are now one of the largest and most talented 3D graphics companies in the world. Our growth headroom is enormous. | | Michael Hara
Michael Hara has 18 years experience in the electronics industry, most of which were in the computer graphics and imaging businesses. Before NVIDIA, Mr. Hara was director of High Integration Products at S3, Inc., where he was responsible for managing the development and marketing of the company's highly successful Trio64 integrated graphics chip. He holds a B.S.E.E.T. from DeVry Institute of Technology.
Photo courtesy of NVIDIA |