Nvidia's Latest Chips Are a Literal Game Changer

American chip innovation is alive and well, as Nvidia's latest lineup showed. For all those who cite Intel Corp.'s troubles as symbolic of the U.S. semiconductor industry's decline, here are two heartening words: Nvidia Corp. On Tuesday, Nvidia -- a red-hot maker of chips for video games, artificial intelligence and cloud computing -- proved again that it is way ahead of its rivals in terms of innovation and performance. The Silicon Valley-based company announced a lineup of three new gaming graphics cards based on its latest "Ampere" chip architecture, saying they will deliver up to double the performance of its prior offerings in the "greatest generational leap" in its history. Prices for the new products range from $499 to $1,499, with two due to come out later this month and the third to be released in October.