The first GTC was held from September 30 to October 2, 2009 at the
Fairmont San Jose hotel and attracted roughly 1,500 attendees. The first GTC was so wildly popular that it ended up hosting "several hundred more people" than expected, forcing Nvidia to "shut down registration" at two weeks before the conference. Since GTC 2009, Nvidia has used the much larger
San Jose Convention Center as GTC's primary venue. Along with Nvidia, GTC's size and prominence greatly increased during the
AI boom. According to Nvidia, Huang starts to plan his keynote address about two months before each GTC, to identify what announcements he will make and what things he will present or demonstrate on the stage. GTC 2025 drew about 25,000 attendees to San Jose. By then, GTC and its host company had shifted focus so sharply from graphics to artificial intelligence that Huang himself called GTC the "
Super Bowl of A.I." Nvidia wrapped
Downtown San Jose in its "neon green and black colors". On March 18, Nvidia also held a
night market inspired by Huang's well-known affection for
Taiwanese night markets. Thus, on March 18, hard-core attendees had to survive a grueling 12-hour schedule of events to get the full GTC experience. ==See also==