Jensen Huang resigns: Where are Nvidia's other two co-founders? One could have been world's 2nd richest person after Elon Musk had he not sold his shares that could be worth $600 billion today

Jensen Huang is no longer the chief executive officer of Nvidia, the chipmaker he co-founded in 1993. The company's board announced his resignation on November 12 and appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent successor.

In its statement announcing Huang's departure, Nvidia's board thanked him for his contributions, saying: "Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry."

With Huang's resignation, attention has shifted to the company's leadership and succession plans. But what happened to Nvidia's other two co-founders, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem? While one continues to work at the chipmaker, the other left years ago and sold his Nvidia shares, potentially walking away from a fortune worth hundreds of billions of dollars today.

Chris A. Malachowsky

Chris Malachowsky is still associated with Nvidia. He serves as a member of the company's executive staff and holds the position of Founder and Nvidia Fellow, according to his official company biography.

Malachowsky co-founded Nvidia in 1993 alongside Jensen Huang and Curtis Priem. According to Nvidia, he has played an important role in defining and driving the company's core technologies as it grew from a startup into a global leader in accelerated computing.

During his career at Nvidia, Malachowsky has led several functions, including IT, operations and various aspects of product engineering. Most recently, he was responsible for Nvidia's research organisation, which focuses on developing strategic technologies to support the company's future growth.

Before joining Nvidia, Malachowsky held engineering and technical leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. He has authored close to 40 patents, according to the company.

He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida and a master's degree in computer science from Santa Clara University. Both institutions have honoured him with Distinguished Alumnus awards. He also received honorary doctorates from the University of Silicon Valley in 2022 and the University of Florida in 2023.

Beyond his technology career, Malachowsky has also received recognition in the film industry. He received an Emmy for Inheritance, a documentary he helped produce that won Best Documentary in 2009. In 2019, he was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame.

Curtis Priem

Curtis Priem followed a very different path after co-founding Nvidia. According to a Fortune report published in February 2026, Priem owned approximately 12.8% of Nvidia when the company went public in 1999, at a valuation of roughly $1.1 billion.

Not long after the IPO, he began transferring much of his stake to a charitable foundation. By 2006, he had sold all his Nvidia shares.

The decision proved particularly significant as Nvidia went on to become one of the world's most valuable companies. Fortune estimated that Priem's original 12.8% stake would have been worth more than $597 billion if he had retained it, without accounting for stock dilution. That hypothetical amount would have made him one of the world's richest people.

Priem has acknowledged that he sometimes wonders what might have happened if he had held on to more of his shares.

"I wish I'd kept a little bit more [Nvidia shares]," Priem told Forbes.

He had earlier described the decision as rational at the time, saying that retaining such a large stake would have meant holding what he considered an "excessive amount of money."

Forbes estimated Priem's net worth at approximately $30 million in its 2023 profile.

From Nvidia engineer to philanthropist

Priem graduated from New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1982. While studying engineering, he also spent four years playing the cello in the university's orchestra. He later credited the experience with helping develop his creativity in technology.

After graduating, Priem worked as an engineer at Vermont Microsystems, GenRad and Sun Microsystems before helping establish Nvidia.

At Nvidia, he worked on the foundational architecture that enabled engineers to develop algorithms for the company's chips.

Priem subsequently turned his attention to philanthropy and his alma mater. He has donated more than $275 million to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute since 2001 and serves on the university's board of trustees, according to Fortune.

Although he left Nvidia nearly two decades ago, his early decision to sell his shares remains one of the most striking examples of a technology founder missing out on an extraordinary fortune.