NVIDIA ranked as smartest company in the world

This may surprise you but MIT's Technology Review just ranked NVIDIA as world's smartest company. The 2017 edition of the list places the GPU and AI company ahead of SpaceX, Amazon, 23andMe, and Alphabet.

MIT's editors rank companies that combine innovative technology with an effective business model. NVIDIA receives praise from the list's creators for continuing to tweak its chips to help develop breakthrough technologies like deep learning and self-driving vehicles:

Summary Though Nvidia still makes most of its money from selling graphics chips for video games, it has established itself as the leading provider of processing power for AI software, and its newer, AI-related businesses are growing quickly. During its most recent financial quarter, revenues from its data-center and automotive businesses increased by 186 percent and 24 percent, respectively, over the previous year. The company says all the major Internet and cloud-service providers use its chips to accelerate their processes, and a number of large carmakers, including Toyota, are using its autonomous-driving technology.

$3 billion: spending on R&D to create its new data-center chip

NVIDIA says they're proud for hitting a top 50 spot for the third year in a row:

This is the third straight year MIT Tech Review featured NVIDIA on its list, having climbed from No. 28 in the 2015 list, and No 12 on last year’s list. Tesla Motors topped 2015’s list, and Amazon topped last year’s list.

Other major tech companies on the list include Alphabet (aka Google) with a 5th place, Intel at 13, Apple at 16, Facebook at 23, Microsoft at 27, Tesla at 31, Foxconn at 33 and Baidu at 50.

The majority of the companies on the top 50 list are based in the US and are involved in the computer hardware industry, Internet technologies, deep learning and artificial intelligence fields. Other than this, there are also a bunch of biotech companies on the list, as well as some renewable energy companies.