Denny’s is restoring its local shrine to Nvidia at the Silicon Valley diner where Jensen Huang famously founded the company in 1993 – after “bosses” at the restaurant hastily removed it shortly after the disgraced chip titan resigned as CEO.
A framed plaque and photos had long hung above the storied booth at a Denny’s in San Jose, Calif., where Huang and two co-founders – Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem – conjured up what would become the chipmaker that’s leading the artificial intelligence boom.
“The booth that launched a $1 trillion company,” the inscription read in all-caps.
A Denny’s spokesperson said: “We’re reinstalling the plaque recognizing the conversations at Denny’s that helped launch Nvidia,” but didn’t offer an explanation about why it had been removed. “America’s Diner has long been a place where people and ideas come together, and that history deserves to be preserved.”
The Post has sought comment from Huang.
On Friday only an empty patch of brick wall and chipped paint were left where the display had been, according to a Post reporter who visited the diner.
A source familiar with the situation said the display had been taken down before there were any conversations with “larger stakeholders,” likely referring to Denny’s corporate, which oversees some 1,200 franchise locations across the US.
A server at the San Jose, Calif., location told The Post that “bosses” had initially removed the commemorative display.
The worker said he had waited on Huang on several occasions and was once given a $300 tip by the tech tycoon. He said Huang ordered pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage and that Huang gave $100 to every server, cook and dishwasher.
“He made my day,” the server added.
The plaque was installed during a 2023 ceremony in which Huang – who said he washed dishes and waited tables in a Portland, Ore., Denny’s when he was 15 years old – met with Denny’s CEO at the time, Kelli Valade. They reminisced about Nvidia’s founding story during their confab.
Huang said he and his co-founders met at a booth near the back of the Denny’s to discuss creating a chip that would enable realistic 3-D graphics on personal computers. The Denny’s is roughly 8 miles from Nvidia’s headquarters.
Here’s the latest on the Nvidia CEO’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy:
“It had all the coffee you could drink and no one could chase you out,” Huang told Valade, according to an Nvidia blog post about the ceremony.
In the wake of Huang’s exit, passersby left flowers and bags of potato chips — a nod to the semiconductor chips that Nvidia builds – outside the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, according to reports. Getty Images depicted a man placing a candle in front of an Nvidia sign.
Huang was forced to resign following a torrent of allegations in recent weeks over his conduct while at the helm of Nvidia.
The tech titan confessed last week to an affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, no relation.
Huang also faced allegations that he had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care — an exec who reports to him, according to reports.
Reuters reported Thursday that Huang had an intimate relationship with a second Nvidia employee, citing unnamed sources. Her name and other details were not known.
Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, is serving as interim CEO. Kress has been with the company for 13 years and will also continue to serve in her current roles during the search for a permanent replacement, which will consider both internal and external candidates.
