GPU

¹ American  

[gey-pey-oo, jee-pee-yoo] / ˈgeɪˌpeɪˈu, ˈdʒiˌpiˈyu /

Or G.P.U.

abbreviation

1. (in the Soviet Union) the secret-police organization (1922–23) functioning under the NKVD.

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GPU ² American  

abbreviation

1. General Postal Union. See Universal Postal Union.

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GPU ³ American  

abbreviation

Computers.

1. graphics processing unit: a secondary processor usually dedicated to performing the calculations necessary for producing computer graphics, lessening the burden on the main processor.

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GPU British  

abbreviation

1. State Political Administration; the Soviet police and secret police from 1922 to 1923

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Etymology

Origin of GPU¹

From Russian G(osudárstvennoe) p(olitícheskoe) u(pravlénie) “state political directorate”

Origin of GPU³

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Starcloud raised $170 million for space data centers, planning a second satellite with a GPU cluster 100 times more powerful.

From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026

Arm could dominate the CPU market the way Nvidia has come to dominate the GPU market, an analyst says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

Nebius is the only AI-compute provider with a “truly global GPU fabric,” Liani highlighted, adding that other neoclouds can only virtualize within a single physical facility.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 24, 2026

“Higher per GPU content in scale out” refers to how the exploding growth in data centers for artificial intelligence has increased the need for fiberoptic connections, which Corning makes.

From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026

Nvidia also now sits at a competitive crossroads, as the evolving needs of the AI computing market grow beyond the training of large language models that the company’s GPU chips were so well suited for.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026