The historical figures who inspired Nvidia’s product names, from Grace Hopper to David Blackwell

Nvidia takes some inspiration from history when it comes to naming its AI chips.

There are chips named for Grace Hopper, David Blackwell, Vera Rubin.

While their nomenclature may be overshadowed by other features like their computing power or speed as Big Tech giants and AI startups alike clamor for these chips, their names are a nod to scientific pioneers.

Here are some of the historical figures Nvidia has paid homage to for their groundbreaking work:

Grace Hopper

Hopper was a computer scientist and mathematician who worked on the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I), one of the first all-electronic digital computers.

She received a degree in mathematics from Vassar College, where she also taught, and her master’s and doctorate degrees in mathematics from Yale University. In 1943, she enlisted in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service and eventually rose to become a rear admiral in the Navy.

Hopper invented the first computer compiler, which turned programming instructions into code computers could read, and worked on the development of COBOL, a widely used computer language.

She also predicted computers would one day become compact, widely-used devices, as they are today, and used the word “bug” to describe computer malfunctions, according to the Navy.

In 1973, Hopper was named a distinguished fellow of the British Computer Society, making her the first woman to hold the title. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Hopper died in 1992 at the age of 85.

Nvidia’s Hopper chips powered much of the generative AI revolution of the ChatGPT era, costing roughly $40,000 and quickly becoming a a hot commodity among Big Tech giants and AI startups alike.

David Blackwell

Blackwell was a mathematician and statistician who made major contributions to topics like game theory, information theory, and probability theory.

He began college at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at age 16.

He taught at Howard University and UC Berkeley and was the first African American inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

One of his most notable contributions to the field is the Rao-Blackwell theorem for improving estimators.

He died in 2010 at the age of 91.

Nvidia’s Blackwell chips are its most advanced to date. The company is readying the next-generation Blackwell Ultra chips.

Ada Lovelace

The daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, Ada Lovelace is widely regarded as the mother of computer programming.

She’s best known for her translations and notes on her associate Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.

An early programming language was also named after her, and the second Tuesday in October is designated Ada Lovelace Day, honoring women in STEM.

She died in 1852 at the age of 36.

Nvidia’s Lovelace GPU architecture powers its 40-series graphics cards, which aren’t as powerful as its data center chips but are used by gamers and programmers conducting on-device AI development.

Vera Rubin

Rubin was an astronomer best known for her work showing compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter.

She received her bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Vassar College, her master’s from Cornell University, and her doctorate from Georgetown University. She studied many galaxies and their rotation rates.

Her work was recognized with awards including the National Medal of Science and the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal.

She died in 2016 at the age of 88.

Nvidia’s coming Rubin AI “superchip” platform is expected to debut in the second half of 2026.

Richard Feynman

Feynman got his undergraduate degree at MIT and his Ph.D. at Princeton University. He created Feynman diagrams, graphic representations that helped calculate the probability of particle interactions.

He was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the US atomic bomb project in 1941, and later at the secret lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Feynman was later part of the committee that investigated the Challenger space shuttle explosion.

He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics.

He died in 1988 at the age of 69.

Nvidia’s Feynman architecture is an upcoming GPU series, expected to ship in 2028, that hasn’t been fully detailed.

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