In rather touching news, the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, gave thanks to Sega during his recent trip to Tokyo.
The story around this is quite well known, but back in the 1990’s, Nvidia failed to meet Sega’s console expectations for a new graphics chip, and Sega ended up utilizing NEC’s PowerVR GPU for the mighty Dreamcast instead.
However, Sega’s management, in an act of genuine goodwill, paid Nvidia the remaining $5 million for their contract fee and structured it as an equity investment.
According to Huang, this lifeline kept Nvidia from bankruptcy, allowing the company to develop the later Riva 128 and GeForce lines of graphics cards.
In short, the money Sega paid Nvidia back then laid the foundation for the GPUs that artificial intelligence now uses.
The fact that Huang took the time to share this frankly humbling story and show clear gratitude towards Sega, which is now sadly a shadow of its former self, was something I found deeply moving.
In general, of all the billionaire tech bros out there, Huang is by far the best, kindest, and most level-headed. The fact that he could say thank you to Sega decades after Nvidia let them down is the mark of a great leader.
The only thing that felt rather bittersweet was that Sega’s people showed Virtua Fighter running on laptops at the end of the event, which, considering the company’s long and storied arcade history, was rather sad to see.
There was a time when Sega was pushing the boundaries of what graphics in games could be. With their various arcade games being some of the best available, not to mention that Virtua Fighter was one of their tentpole franchises.
While I get that most gaming hardware architecture is pretty standardized now, which is great for cross compatibility, I vividly remember a time when it was all very different, and Sega was a shining beacon of possibility in the world of games.
My own rose-tinted mawkishness aside, I am glad Huang was able to share what happened openly back then and made a public thank you to Sega. Here’s hoping that Virtua Fighter Crossroads can make good on that impressive display of gratitude.
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