A method is provided for sharing access to graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware between multiple client virtual machines, wherein each of the client virtual machines has a high-level application programming interface (API) associated therewith for communicating with the GPU hardware. The method includes virtualizing the GPU by intercepting GPU-specific commands from the plurality of client virtual machines, wherein the commands specific to the GPU are at a lower level than that of the high-level API, and providing the intercepted commands to the GPU hardware.