Ex-Nvidia leaders launch EverGreen to back AI startups

After nearly 16 years at Nvidia, Greg Estes found retirement harder than he expected. He and other former Nvidia leaders have launched EverGreen, a community that formally launched in March to advise and invest in AI startups. Estes said, "It's really hard to go from a job like that, doing amazing things, and you just stop, and you're unemployed, looking at avocados at Safeway." EverGreen's founding partners include Estes, Jeff Brown, Devang Sachdev, and Vishal Lulla.

The effort grew out of a broader Nvidia alumni community that spans LinkedIn groups, email lists, and live events and has grown to roughly 30,000 members. Estes previously led Nvidia's Inception startup program, which provides more than 40,000 companies with cloud credits and access to Nvidia technology, and Brown had left the company years before the AI boom to focus on advisory work and venture investing.

The group focuses on companies that work with Nvidia and are not direct competitors, across sectors such as infrastructure, developer tools, and robotics.

evergreen, nvidia, greg estes, jeff brown, devang sachdev, vishal lulla, ai startups, nvidia inception, alumni community, developer tools