Denny's Strips Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang Plaque Following Resignation Over Workplace Affairs

Denny's has stripped down the commemorative booth plaque honoring Jensen Huang at the California diner where Nvidia was born in 1993, moving swiftly to erase the tech icon's physical monument after misconduct allegations forced him out of the company.

Bare brick and chipped paint now mark the wall where the brass tribute once hung. Restaurant staff confirmed the removal. The symbol of Silicon Valley's most celebrated corporate origin story vanished almost overnight.

Huang ended his 33-year reign at Nvidia on Thursday amid an internal firestorm surrounding his personal conduct. Pressure mounted on the board after disclosures that Huang engaged in romantic associations with subordinates, including Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, alongside a separate intimate relationship with another employee. He leaves behind his wife, Alice Huang, and the company he built into a global computing titan.

The Scrubbed Booth and the 1993 Diner Origins

Thirty-three years ago, Huang sat in that California booth alongside co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. They drank bottomless drip coffee and sketched out the architecture of a graphics chip venture. That napkin-stage bet eventually morphed into the linchpin hardware provider for the worldwide artificial intelligence boom.

Denny's Chief Executive Kelli Valade personally presented the commemorative marker to Huang in 2023 to immortalize the corporate birthplace. Huang recounted during the dedication that he ate his first American hamburger and drank his first milkshake in that very booth.

But the tribute proved fragile.

Executive Succession and the Board Review

To steady operations after the sudden departure, the Nvidia board appointed Colette Kress as interim chief executive. Kress, a 13-year company veteran, retains her existing responsibilities as executive vice president and chief financial officer while assuming executive control.

Nvidia's board of directors has begun screening both internal executives and outside candidates for the permanent chief executive role, with formal transition updates expected during upcoming regulatory disclosures.