413. The Reunion

Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, traveled to Tokyo recently to meet with Shoichiro Irimajiri, the former chief executive of Sega, and Yu Suzuki, a game designer who worked at Sega. The purpose of the visit, Bloomberg reports, was to thank them. Jensen Huang wanted to say thank you in person. The thank you was for a $5 million investment made in 1995 that saved Nvidia from bankruptcy after the company's first graphics processing unit failed commercially. Jensen Huang flew to Tokyo. He said thank you. The meeting was held.

In 1995, Nvidia was in financial difficulty. The company had released its first product, a graphics chip called the NV1, and the NV1 had not performed well in the market. The market had other preferences. The company needed money to continue operating and to develop a new approach to graphics processing. Sega provided $5 million. The $5 million allowed Nvidia to keep developing graphics chips. Nvidia developed better graphics chips. The chips became popular. The company grew.

(Nvidia's market capitalization is currently approximately three trillion dollars. The $5 million investment made in 1995 to save the company from bankruptcy would represent, if held as equity to the present day, a return of some mathematical character. Bloomberg does not specify the exact multiple. The multiple is large. The exact largeness of the multiple is left to the reader, who may use a calculator if one is available.)

Sega, for its part, no longer manufactures consumer game consoles. The company released the Dreamcast in 1998, which was its fifth and final home console. The Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001 after underwhelming sales. Sega then exited the console hardware business and became a game publisher and developer. Sega games are now released on consoles made by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Sega does not make the consoles. Other companies make the consoles. Sega makes games for them.

The meeting in Tokyo involved the man who runs a three-trillion-dollar company and the men who gave him $5 million when the alternative was bankruptcy. Thirty-one years have passed. Jensen Huang went to Tokyo to say thank you in person. The gesture is described by Bloomberg as an expression of gratitude. The expression of gratitude involved international travel. The international travel was undertaken to convey the gratitude in person rather than by other available means.

The $5 million invested in Nvidia in 1995 was, from a returns standpoint, a significant investment. The investors are no longer in the console hardware business. The company they invested in powers the largest artificial intelligence systems ever built and is considered essential infrastructure for the global economy. This outcome was not specified in the original investment agreement. The agreement was to provide $5 million. The $5 million was provided. The rest followed.

Jensen Huang said thank you. He flew to Tokyo to do it. The men who received the thanks were, in 1995, the executives of a video game company. They are now the people Jensen Huang flew to Tokyo to thank. The trip was made. The gratitude was expressed. The meeting concluded.