Damien McFerran at TimeExtension.com shares the story of Nvidia’s near-bankruptcy in 1995, after partnering with Sega to build a game console:

If we had finished that game console with Sega and fulfilled our contract, we would have spent two years working on the wrong architecture while everybody else is racing ahead in this new world that, quite frankly, we kind of started.

On the other hand, if we didn’t finish the contract, then we run out of money. And so I was confronted with a situation where we would finish the project and die, or not finish the project and die right away.

Sega released them from their contract, and also paid them the $5 million that would have been due.

It was all the money that we had. And it gave us just enough money to hunker down.

Nvidia is now worth over $3 Trillion, briefly surpassing Apple and Microsoft.

What a remarkable comeback.

I also enjoyed this recent Joy of Tech comic spotlighting Nvidia’s recent massive growth.

nVidia then and now!

Hard not to be envious!

The Joy of Tech

(Via @Sonikku.)