Cade Prize Launches Cade Inventor Laureate Award; Honors NVIDIA Co-Founder as First Recipient

Gainesville, FL — The Cade Prize for Inventivity, an annual competition for early-stage inventors and entrepreneurs, today announced the launch of the Cade Inventor Laureate award to strengthen Cade's mission of recognizing and celebrating inventors and to honor inventors whose innovations have fundamentally changed the world.

In addition to honoring the legacy of Dr. Cade who led the team that invented Gatorade, the new Cade Inventor Laureate award aims to honor living inventors whose innovations have:

• Transformed the competitive landscape in its field
• Broadly changed economies and societies
• Succeeded commercially and is economically sustainable

The inaugural honoree, Chris Malachowsky, founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has more than 40 years of industry experience. He serves as a member of the executive staff and a senior technology executive for the company. Malachowsky is a recognized authority on integrated-circuit design and methodology, he has authored close to 40 patents. 

NVIDIA is the world leader in accelerated computing and AI, pioneering technologies spanning the entire computing system — from hardware to software — that are reshaping trillion-dollar industries like gaming, robotics, healthcare, self-driving cars, and climate science.

According to Cade Museum co-founder and Cade Prize judge, Richard Miles, “For the last 16 years, the Cade Prize has celebrated early-stage inventors whose ideas hold the potential to change the world. This award is the natural evolution of that vision, honoring inventors whose innovations have transformed society at the highest level,” he said. “We are proud to recognize Chris Malachowsky as the first recipient of this award. His contributions to computing and AI stand among the most consequential inventions of our time,” he added.  

The award will be presented to Malachowsky at the 2025 Cade Prize Awards on Tuesday, October 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention. Tickets are on sale at cadeprize.org.

This year’s Cade Prize is sponsored by Scott MacKenzie, The Community Foundation of North Central Florida, The Florida High Tech Corridor, Gatorade, Cyle Sage, Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, OneSixOne Ventures, Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, 3D Musketeers, NVision Strategies and Hyatt Place Downtown.

About
The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs, who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.

Media Contact
Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org  

###

‍