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Curtis Priem, one of the less-known cofounders of Nvidia, could've been the 16th richest person in America if he kept all his stock from the company before leaving in 2003. Still, his contributions to the company have afforded him an eclectic, off-the-grid life of his own, Forbes first reported.
After Nvidia, the company behind GPUs, went public in 1999, Priem, who was its first chief technology officer, put more than three-quarters of his Nvidia shares — 100 million in today's share count — into a charity he started called the Priem Family Foundation. The foundation, which once donated to causes like The Nature Conservancy before pivoting to educational endeavors, currently holds $160 million in assets and is set to shutter by 2031, Priem told Forbes.
By 2006, Priem sold the rest of his shares, leaving him with a fortune worth around $30 million, Forbes estimated. Nvidia's market cap is estimated to be $1.19 trillion as of November 28th.
While Priem gave the majority of his fortune away to his alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — to which his foundation gave $75 million this year to house its first IBM Quantum Computer — the Nvidia cofounder spent parts of his wealth on a few things of his own.
He currently lives in a $6 million house in a remote area near Fremont, California, Forbes reports. In his off-the-grid home, he writes "manifestos" on how to solve problems like "repairing the earth," and communicates through single-use email addresses to avoid spam, according to Forbes.
In 2021, he purchased a Gulfstream G450 private jet he named "Snoopy," and he uses his jet, which its maker Flexjet describes as "long-range luxury," to fly to RPI four times a year, per Forbes.
Still, Priem appears to have some regrets on how much money he gave away to RPI.
"I did a little crazy thing, and I wish I'd kept a little bit more [Nvidia shares]," Priem told Forbes.
Priem's thoughts around his wealth come as Nvidia continues to play a major role in powering the AI revolution. Companies like Microsoft have been vying to purchase Nvidia's powerful chips to train and deploy their own AI models. In turn, Nvidia's stock has climbed over 200% in the last year.
As a result, CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang's wealth soared nearly $30 billion as of late November. With a net worth of $42.9 billion, Huang is now the world's 27th-richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.
Nvidia didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
