What is Jensen Huang’s favorite place to eat? Denny’s, possibly, as NVIDIA has shared a new article about how its CEO showed up at one of the franchise’s diners in Silicon Valley yesterday to revisit the location where Huang and other NVIDIA founders came up with the revolutionary idea of a graphics processing unit (GPU). Huang, who arrived in a leather jacket, was joined by Kelli Valade, Denny CEO, to unveil a plaque celebrating “the booth that launched a $1 trillion company,” while the Denny’s Trillion-Dollar Incubator Contest—a contest offering $25,000 in seed money for the next $1 trillion idea—was also announced. “We make the best pancakes here,” Huang, who had his first hamburger and milkshake at Denny’s, said.
Both CEOs got their start working in diners. Valade got her first job as a waitress at a diner when she was 16. Huang got his first job at Denny’s in Portland when he was 15.
“I was a dishwasher, I was a busboy, I waited tables,” Huang said. “No one can carry more coffee cups than I can.”
NVIDIA, the leading accelerated computing and AI company, got its start at the 24-hour diner chain known for favorites such as its signature Grand Slam combo.
In 1993, three friends — Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem — met at Denny’s to discuss creating a chip that would enable realistic 3D graphics on personal computers.
The Denny’s just off a busy thoroughfare in the heart of Silicon Valley was the perfect place to start a business, said Huang, who lived nearby at the time with his wife and kids.
Tuesday’s event took place in a corner of the bustling restaurant — one of the most popular Denny’s locations in Northern California — as families, retirees, and workers coming off the night shift piled in for plates piled high with eggs and pancakes, sausage and bacon.
Huang was among them, starting the day with a meeting where he and his table polished off a Lumberjack Slam, Moons Over My Hammy, and a Super Bird sandwich — washed down with plenty of coffee.
