NVIDIA has a lot of GPUs on the market in all sorts of categories form entry-level chips inside notebooks and netbooks to high-end GPUs that are aimed at the gaming market for desktop users. One of the things that all of the NVIDIA GPUs has in common is that NVIDIA designs the parts and TSMC builds them for NVIDIA.

NVIDIA and TSMC have announced today that they have shipped the one billionth GeForce graphics processor. I feel like that announcement should come with a photo of Dr. Evil with his pinky to his lips. NVIDIA reports that just about every major PC maker in the world uses its GPUs. It has taken big green 12 years to hit the billion shipped mark and the company is already looking forward to its second billion.

"Since inventing the GPU more than a decade ago, NVIDIA has driven innovation in these processors at a rate virtually unmatched in the technology industry," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer, NVIDIA. "With our close partnership with TSMC, the complexity of these devices has increased more than 1000 times, enabling enormous progress in computers ranging from handhelds and PCs to workstations and data centers."

"NVIDIA's achievement is a prime example of how close collaboration between foundry and fabless companies can benefit the consumer electronics market, the semiconductor market segment, and both companies' shareholders. NVIDIA has been a model of vision and innovation, and we highly value the long-term relationship between NVIDIA and TSMC," said Dr. Morris Chang, TSMC Chairman and CEO.