| Type | Research |
| Owner(s) | Walter White (former) Elliott Schwartz Gretchen Schwartz |
| Featured in | Breaking Bad |
Gray Matter Technologies is a multi-billion dollar research company headed by the Schwartz family and originally founded by Walter White and Elliott Schwartz. It is featured in 2008 television series Breaking Bad as a major element of Walter White's backstory.
Overview[]
The company was originally founded by the young Caltech alumni Walter White and Elliot Schwartz shortly after graduating with the highest honors thanks to their acclaimed thesis earning them the Nobel Peace Prize, with the duo deciding to name their new company after their last names combined: "White" and "Schwartz" (which means "black" in German), and thus "Gray" Matter Technologies was born. Although the company was not successful at the start due to only having a few patents pending, it was able to get by, with Walter White even hiring a young woman Gretchen from an esteemed and wealthy family to serve as his lab assistant, and unsurprisingly a romance would spark between them and eventually an engagement, but as time went on Mr. White began feeling inferior to his fiancee due to her success and wealth, and to avoid a bruised ego, White broke up their engagement, and finding himself unable to continue working with her, Mr. White sold his share of the company for $5,000, a measly sum when compared to what would come next, for as it turned out, some time after leaving the company, Gray Matter Technologies became a corporate and scientific powerhouse worth millions, and to add insult to injury, Mr. White's fiancee would go on to marry his best friend and former business partner Elliot Schwartz. Though Mr. White stayed on seemingly good terms with his old acquaintances, he in truth secretly envied them and resented them for the success and happiness they found without him, and Mr. White would come to regret leaving Gray Matter for many years to come.
Mr. White's bitterness would only grow over time, especially in 2008 when Schwartz and his former company were nominated for another Nobel Prize without him, this time for their research into molecular switches, and by 2009 the company's net worth had exceeded $2.16 billion, an even greater blow to Mr. White's ego who estimated that his original $5,000 share would've been worth $720 million by then had he stayed with the company. Mr. White would continue to personally blame Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz for his misfortunes which only seemed to grow as he was diagnosed with cancer, and found himself face-to-face with Elliot Schwartz once more who had generously offered White a chance to return to the company with a good healthcare plan that would take care of him, but Mr. White was disgusted by this act of charity and refused the offer, instead preferring to get the money his own way by lowering himself to producing crystal meth to survive, a decision which would greatly impact Mr. White's life from then on.
Trivia[]
- In a 2016 interview with Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, he revealed that the reason why Walter White left Gray Matter Technologies was because he felt inferior to Gretchen Schwartz and her wealthy family.
- According to lawyer and noted conman "Saul Goodman" of Saul Goodman & Associates and Saul Goodman Productions, had Mr. White come to him sooner about his regrets and losses over the company, Mr. "Goodman" claims he could've sued them for "wrongful termination, intellectual property theft, and patent fraud", however Mr. White admits that Saul would be the last person he would rely on for legal counsel.
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