Jensen Huang Leaves Triple-Digit Tip at Döner Shop in Berlin

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang left a tip in the triple digits at a döner kebab shop in Berlin's Schöneberg district during his stay in the German capital, according to an employee. After the "Invest in Germany" summit with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, Oct. 19, the head of the U.S. chip company came to the shop at Hauptstraße 36 with his wife and security staff.

Five döner kebabs and three orders of fries

The shop, Rüyam Gemüse Kebab, has been open in Berlin for about twelve years and is known for its vegetable kebab. Huang ordered five döner kebabs with salad and no hot sauce, plus three orders of fries.

Employee Wissam, who handled the register, told the German tabloid "Bild": "It was triple digits – he threw in quite a lot." He did not give the exact amount. He said it was the best tip of the night.

Huang came in rather inconspicuously. Owner Randa did not recognize him at first. "He stood there very casually with a friendly smile," she said. The guest posed for photos with the team, greeted the shop's boss and wrote an autograph on the wall.

The shop posted the photos on Instagram. The caption said, in essence, that some days are simply different: A special guest had stopped by and left a small memento on the wall.

AI partnership with the German government

At the summit at Kraftwerk Berlin, Huang sat on stage with Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Both announced a closer AI partnership for German industry. The focus is on "physical AI," meaning artificial intelligence for robots, factories and autonomous systems.

Germany's federal government is contributing a sum in the hundreds of millions, while Nvidia is providing chips and engineers. Siemens and Audi are among those taking part. According to the news site mein-berlin.net, Nvidia also announced investments in four German startups at the summit, including Agile Robots and Reflex Aerospace.

Huang praised Germany's strengths in science and engineering. "I believe in Germany," he said. At the same time, he called, in essence, for the country to be rebuilt and for its businesses to seize the opportunities of the new technology. Shortly before, in London, he had criticized Germany for being "so far behind" in new technologies, saying this pained him especially.

Laptop launch and keynote at Tempodrom

On Oct. 16, Huang had already made an unannounced appearance at Xperion on Alexanderplatz. There, Nvidia launched the first Windows laptops with the new RTX Spark AI chip. In front of about 500 visitors, he raffled off signed laptops. "Germany is our largest European site," Huang said, pointing to telecommunications, robotics, autonomous vehicles and AI research.

Nvidia employs about 1,000 people in Germany, including roughly 150 researchers in Berlin working on robotics, graphics and autonomous driving, among other areas. Last year, the company invested nearly a billion dollars in Germany.

At the GTC Berlin developer conference at the Tempodrom, Huang gave the sold-out keynote on the "industrial AI revolution" on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Among other things, he showed dancing robots and the Siemens factory in Erlangen as a showcase project. Europe and Germany should build AI themselves and not just consume it, he said.