Nvidia CEO reviews all 42,000 employee salaries using machine learning

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang personally reviews the salaries of all 42,000 company employees at the end of every compensation cycle, using machine learning to help process the data. The hands-on approach reflects his philosophy that taking care of employees drives overall business success—a strategy that has helped create multiple billionaires on his management team as Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company.

What you should know: Huang dismissed rumors about a secret stock option pool but confirmed his comprehensive approach to employee compensation.
• “I review everybody’s compensation, up to this day, at the end of every cycle,” Huang said during a recent All-In podcast panel.
• He uses machine learning and technological tools to “sort through all 42,000 employees—and 100% of the time I increase the company’s spend on opex.”
• The CEO rejected speculation about a hidden treasure trove of stock options, calling such rumors “nuts.”

His compensation philosophy: Huang believes generous employee compensation creates a foundation for broader company success.
• “If you take care of people, everything else takes care of itself,” he explained to the podcast hosts.
• This approach has proven financially rewarding for Nvidia’s leadership as the company’s stock price has surged alongside the AI boom.

The big picture: Huang’s wealth creation extends beyond his own success to his entire management team.
• Recent stock price increases have elevated three Nvidia board members to billionaire status.
• Huang himself joined Forbes’s ranking of the world’s top ten billionaires for the first time last fall.
• “I’ve created more billionaires on my management team than any CEO in the world,” he told the All-In podcast hosts.

Why this matters: The personal attention Huang pays to compensation decisions underscores how Nvidia’s leadership approaches talent retention during a period of intense competition for AI expertise, while the company sits at the center of the artificial intelligence revolution as a chip manufacturer.