Those who work at Nvidia often receive much more than just their salary, namely stocks. However, wealth comes at a price, yet hardly anyone resigns. We explain the background.
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How successful is Nvidia now? The US company has experienced a steep rise in recent years from being an already important manufacturer of chips for graphics cards to becoming the global market leader for AI data centers. It is this boom that has recently made the company the most valuable in the world. That’s why we reported recently: Anyone who invested just 100 euros in Nvidia stocks at the beginning of Covid-19 could buy the best graphics card for more than 2,000 euros today.
The latest figures are also impressive: The data centers dominate, but gaming is also seeing a revenue increase of almost 20 percent compared to the previous quarter (via boerse-online).
How do Nvidia employees become millionaires? The approximately 76,000 employees of Nvidia have the opportunity to receive part of their salary in a different way, namely in the form of stock shares through the so-called Employee Stock Purchase Plan
(ESPP). 1 to 15 percent can be converted into discounted stock purchases according to a specified system.
Nvidia’s market value has nearly increased tenfold, especially since early 2021 (via boerse.de). Accordingly, the stock portfolios of the employees have also developed favorably. You can find the details about the ESPP on the Nvidia homepage.
Nvidia’s Golden Handcuffs
Do we know exact numbers? No, we cannot specify exactly how many Nvidia employees are simple or even multiple millionaires. There is, however, a survey on teamblind that has now been participated in by more than 3,000 people. The results, as for example also posted by a Finance-X account, suggest that the millionaire share among respondents is more than 50 percent. However, it is unclear to what extent only Nvidia employees participated there. Nonetheless, the numbers are not unrealistic for the above reasons.
Doesn’t that sound like paradise for employees? How fulfilling work at Nvidia is beyond the apparently excellent remuneration is hard to say, but there are reports suggesting some downsides. As Bloomberg writes, significant overtime and stress are said to be part of the daily work routine. Many even report seven-day weeks with more than five meetings a day that can go on into the early morning hours.
Nevertheless, Nvidia manages to retain its employees – and even does so more successfully than average. The percentage of staff that leaves the company and needs to be replaced is far lower annually than is typical in the industry: only about three percent. It’s normal to have to replace nearly one in five every year.
That’s why the industry likes to speak of golden handcuffs that companies with such practices place on their wealthy employees. No one wants to leave, even if they are unhappy and hardly have time to spend their wealth. The desire to accumulate more money outweighs everything else – especially in a system with so few government safeguards like in the USA.
But even if you don’t own Nvidia stocks and certainly don’t work there, Nvidia’s successful chips may still affect you quite a lot. Because AI upscaling technologies like DLSS are results of the same fundamental research as the data centers: Intel, AMD, and Google have no chance against Nvidia – That’s why you as a gamer should be interested in the arms race in AI.
