Episode 01From a diner booth and $40,000 to the first $5 trillion company.
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, Curtis Priem
Film + story out nowRead story →
THE LEDGERNvidia · $40,000 (1993) → ≈$5.7T (Oct 2026)Amazon · a garage, 1994Nokia · a paper mill, 1865Netflix · DVDs by mail, 1997
Episode 01 Film 12 min · Story
The $40,000
Bet.
Three engineers, a diner booth in East San Jose, and a chip company that came within 30 days of running out of cash, before becoming the first company ever worth $5 trillion.
Started with · 1993$40,000
Worth · Oct 2026≈$5,700,000,000,000
NDecision card · 2006
Stay a gaming-chip company, or spend over $1 billion making every chip programmable?
Jensen Huang chose B. See what it led to in the story.
The story wall
Every empire has a first day.
Episode 01
RiseAn online bookstore started in a garage in Bellevue, Washington.
Jeff Bezos
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FallA Finnish paper mill that came to rule mobile phones, then lost them.
Fredrik Idestam
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RiseDVDs by mail, and the offer Blockbuster turned down.
Reed Hastings, Marc Randolph
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FallIt built the first digital camera in 1975, then fell to digital photography.
Inventor: Steven Sasson
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FoundersThree co-founders, and the one who sold his 10% stake for $800.
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne
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Locked fact of the weekIn the mid-1990s, one company turned a failed contract into a $5 million investment that kept Nvidia alive. Which company?
Sega. It later sold its stake for about $15 million. Read the full story.
The timeline rail
160 years of first days.
1865NokiaStarts as a paper mill in Finland.
1975KodakBuilds the first digital camera.
1976AppleFounded by Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne.
1993NvidiaPlanned in a Denny’s booth with $40,000.
1994AmazonAn online bookstore, from a garage.
1997NetflixDVD rentals by mail.
2025NvidiaFirst company worth $5 trillion.
One story every week.
The decisions, mistakes and bets behind the world's biggest companies, before the film drops.