“The booth that launched a $1 trillion company,” read the commemorative plaque before employees at a San Jose Denny’s removed it.
The diner chain is reinstalling the sign at its Berryessa Drive location. It took the sign down after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive.
Colton Grace, Denny’s head of corporate public relations, confirmed the plan to SFGATE on Friday, November 14, 2026, according to Yahoo. “We’re reinstalling the plaque recognizing the conversations at Denny’s that helped launch Nvidia,” a Denny’s spokesperson said in an email.
in the club shaking it somberly
The booth memorialized the 1993 meetings. Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem planned the semiconductor company there. The three engineers chose the restaurant because they could sit with laptops and coffee without workplace interruptions, according to NDTV.
Priem and Malachowsky worked at Sun Microsystems. Huang worked at LSI Logic before they decided to build a business focused on computer graphics and gaming. Malachowsky looked after hardware design. Priem handled software architecture.
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Huang took charge of business decisions. Huang set a strict target before joining the startup. He insisted that it achieve $50 million in sales within a year. They selected the name Nvidia because it sounded like the word for envy.
Huang worked as a seasonal dishwasher, busboy, and waiter at a Denny’s in Portland, Oregon. He started working there when he was 15 years old. He has credited the restaurant chain for helping him break out of a shyer version of himself. Decades later, the founders returned to the San Jose diner. The diner is about 8 miles from Nvidia’s headquarters.
“All the cops are writing their reports,” Malachowsky said, describing nearby San Jose police officers filling out paperwork while the founders mapped out graphics processing units. “We’re sitting there with our laptops, trying to figure out whatever we’re doing.” Malachowsky said they were hardly ideal customers during their lengthy strategy sessions.
Denny’s installed the plaque in September 2023. Huang and then-CEO Kelli Valade attended the ceremony. The event celebrated the firm’s growth to a $3.98 trillion valuation.
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Employees at the San Jose restaurant confirmed the plaque’s temporary removal on Thursday. They left behind an empty section of brick wall with chipped paint. Social media users criticized the diner’s initial distancing. The corporate office reversed course.
“Jensen Huang started at Denny’s as a dishwasher,” Denny’s said on Friday, November 14, 2026. “Years later, he and his co-founders gathered in one of our booths to discuss the idea that became NVIDIA. The plaque commemorates that shared history.”
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