Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has experienced incredible growth in recent years. Since the start of 2024, the company’s shares have risen 167%. Over the past five years, it has increased by no less than 3,450%.
Given these numbers, it’s easy to see why many NVIDIA employees who joined the company five or more years ago are likely millionaires today. Additionally, many mid-level executives at NVIDIA reportedly earn more than $1 million per year, thanks to stock options and the overall appreciation of the company’s stock.
However, the fact that they now have ample cash means that many incumbent Nvidia executives are reportedly operating in a “semi-retirement mode,” which caught the attention of CEO Jensen Huang. They are so comfortable financially that they no longer seem motivated to work as hard as they used to.
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In response to questions about “semi-retired” employees, Huang advised all employees to act as the “CEO” of their own time and be responsible for defining their work ethic. Yet even Huang got a 60% raise last fiscal year, and his compensation was $34.2 million, as Nvidia’s market value is now $3.2 trillion.
But not all Nvidia employees think they are rich. While an Nvidia engineer earns $250,000 per year, shared with Business Insider, the salaries of employees at the company are only impressive at first glance. He explained that while some Nvidia employees may be lucky enough to become millionaires, “a million isn’t too far.”
Based on the West Coast and who joined Nvidia a few years ago, this engineer receives almost half of his base salary annually in the form of restricted stock units (RSUs). He pointed out that from an outsider’s perspective, it seems like money is pouring in all of Nvidia’s employees, especially as the company’s stock soars.
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However, he clarified that not everyone will receive a large number of RSUs as there is a limit to the number of stock units employees can receive. Even the top performers are allowed to receive 50% of their base salary in stock each year.
“Eventually you will cash out your shares to meet your annual obligations for personal taxes, property taxes and other expenses you will have,” he said.
As former Tesla director of AI Andrej Karpathy recently noted, “Most people don’t HODL, and the government takes half.” In other words, many Nvidia and Tesla employees could have been millionaires if they had not sold their company stock when they could do so immediately. On the other hand, he added that long-term owners will likely wait until Tesla enables fully autonomous driving with its FSD software before selling at a premium.
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This article Employees Who Joined Nvidia Five Years Ago Are Now Millionaires and ‘Semi-Retired’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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