How Nvidia’s rise is minting so many millionaires among its relatively small workforce

Nvidia‘s rapid rise to $4 trillion has created a breathtaking windfall for its relatively small workforce.

The AI chip company employs only about 36,000 people, representing an unprecedented concentration of wealth.

Take this example from Levels.fyi, which specializes in analyzing tech industry compensation. It shows how pretty regular individual contributors at Nvidia have likely become millionaires. Anyone above this job level is probably experiencing even more life-changing wealth right now.

Levels.fyi took a look at a real Nvidia job offer from September 2022. A mid-career hardware engineer got this pay package back then: $180,000 salary, $50,000 in stock, and a $40,000 cash signing bonus.

Levels.fyi assumed this person got no more stock and zero bonuses since then, but kept hold of that one equity award. Nvidia shares have soared since then and hit a closing record of $162.88 on Wednesday.

Hakeem Shibly, a data guru at Levels.fyi, ran the updated numbers for me and estimated that this relatively small stock grant would be worth almost $700,000 now, for total compensation of $851,000.

Usually, tech companies give extra stock awards each year, so this example likely undercounts reality. TLDR: This relatively “normal” employee is a millionaire (if they stuck around!)

A Googler joins the chat

When Levels.fyi cofounder Zuhayeer Musa posted this original analysis on LinkedIn about a week ago, a Googler joined the chat.

Lee McKeeman, a staff software engineer at Google, made this valuable point.

There are many Nvidia employees who were more senior back in late 2022. Levels.fyi analyzed an individual contributor at “Level 3” of the chip company’s pay structure. McKeeman suggested looking at more senior staffers, such as Level 5 or Level 6 individual contributors.

These employees often get bigger pay packages and larger stock awards, he noted, while sharing a theoretical example.

If an IC 5/6 employee at Nvidia got a $200,000 base salary and a $200,000 stock award in September 2022, that equity award would be worth $2.8 million now.

“A much crazier change,” McKeeman wrote.

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