It’s the single largest tech stock by market cap on the American exchanges, in a sector that comprises a large part of the market as a whole. The chip maker Nvidia has surpassed giants Microsoft and Apple, and conquered the world, by offering AI-specific hardware.

Not bad, for a company created at Denny’s. Yes, Jensen Huang, originally from Taipei, dreamed up the company over breakfasts at the iconic restaurant chain known for letting people hang out and drink coffee in its booths.

It’s a real rags-to-riches story, almost, in some ways, like the story of the savior of the world being born in a lowly manger. Except there's more sausage and eggs involved.

Now, Nvidia is making deals with prominent Korean firms like SK Hynix, Naver, SK Telecom, Doosan Group, and LG Group.

“The partnerships focus on developing and securing critical memory technologies, expanding AI infrastructure, and supporting the buildout of AI ‘factories’ to serve the growing global demand for AI computation,” writes BV Swagath at GlobalData . “Nvidia and SK Hynix will work together to develop and ensure the supply of advanced memory products, supporting the former's AI infrastructure roadmap.”

Going Back to Those Humble Beginnings

“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,” wrote Brian Caulfield for Nvidia’s blog in September of 2023 , announcing Huang’s return to put a plaque in the spot where he first imagined his firm. “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.”

Caulfield’s coverage revealed that Huang himself got his first job at that same Denny’s at the age of 15. Here’s what Huang had to say about it:

“I was a dishwasher, I was a busboy, I waited tables. No one can carry more coffee cups than I can.”

But Huang also had this to say, when interviewed, about the Denny’s, which illustrates part of the reason why that restaurant served as Nvidia’s incubator.

“It had all the coffee you could drink and no one could chase you out,” Huang explained. Many of us who spent time in a Denny’s in the 1990s remember this being true: you could order just a little, and stay a long while, talking with friends, and yes, hatching entrepreneurial plans. It was, in a way, the Starbucks of its time, with less ostentatious branding and more elbow room, and, in the American landscape of the time, its own sort of authenticity.

Here’s how Caulfield describes that return visit:

“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.”

Eventually, Denny’s launched the Denny’s Trillion-Dollar Incubator Contest, with a $25,000 cash prize. Walter Arnett of Lexington, Kentucky, won with his “Dad Mob” community platform for charitable giving.

Fast forward to today, and what’s currently most recent on the Nvidia is Huang’s trip to South Korea, to talk about those deals.

“I’m very happy to be here with all of you,” Huang reportedly said. “This is Korea’s ecosystem. This is the industrial base. This is the venture investors. This is the young entrepreneurs. We brought them all together. Frankly, next year I hope to see this be 10 times larger — not two times larger, 10 times larger.”

Huang also spoke about the philosophy that drove the company to invest in making AI chips.

“Almost all great technology started out as toys,” he said. “And we realized that computer games were complicated, because they were trying to reproduce reality. Reproducing reality requires extraordinary algorithms, extraordinary computing technology. And we dreamed from that beginning, we could someday be one of the world’s most important technology companies. That was our dream. That was 33 years ago.”

Yes, big things came from that booth at Denny’s. You’re not likely to find another story like this anywhere. Nvidia truly is the financial behemoth of its time. You might say that someone from Taiwan, where the bulk of chips are fabricated, and who studied in the U.S., albeit in Kentucky and Ohio initially, was in a good position to found this dynastic mega-company – but maybe the coffee had a little to do with it, too.