Nvidia Just Spent Nearly $13 Billion on Something Other Than GPUs. Here’s How It Helps NVDA.

Nvidia (NVDA) has become a multi-trillion-dollar company by supplying much of the hardware behind the artificial intelligence (AI) industry's rapid expansion. The stock has climbed close to 1,000% over the past five years. And now it has agreed to spend nearly $13 billion on something that isn't another GPU or piece of computing infrastructure.

The deal may look unusual for a company whose explosive growth has been driven by GPUs. But what Nvidia is buying may say a lot about where the AI business is heading next.