While Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang enjoys an over $150 billion net worth, his fellow cofounder Curtis Priem sold out in 2006—and missed out on $600 billion

Jensen Huang (Credit: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

In 1993, Jensen Huang met two of his engineering friends at a Denny’s in Silicon Valley. Over pancakes and coffee, Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem kicked around an idea that sounded ambitious at the time: building chips that could deliver realistic 3D graphics on personal computers.

Within months, the idea became Nvidia—the company that would eventually power the AI boom and become the most valuable business in history, with a market cap topping $4.6 trillion.