Since 2019 NVIDIA shares increased by 3776% (thanks in particular to sales of the main chip needed to run artificial intelligence systems), and many employees have become rich but still face stress at work.
10 anonymous workers I spoke to Bloomberg, told the publication that they have no time for travel and other entertainment due to the high workload, which arises, among other things, from the chaotic structure of work. One manager in a company may have dozens of direct reports, and instead of cutting staff, they are forced to downsize, CEO Jensen Huang prefers to «torture staff to reach the heights of».
«That’s the way it should be», Huang said of his demanding management style in a recent interview with «60 Minutes». «If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn’t be easy».
One of NVIDIA’s former corporate customer support specialists said that had to work 7 days a week — often until one or two in the morning (while his colleagues allegedly worked even harder). He described the environment as «sweatshop», but added that he was in no hurry to leave the company because of the high salary.
Another woman from the marketing department who left NVIDIA in 2022 said that she attended 7–10 meetings a day with more than 30 people — and the atmosphere was typically accompanied by «shouting and fighting». Just like the previous interviewee, she put up with all this for the opportunity to get even richer.
In 2023, 5.3% of employees left the company, but the attrition rate dropped to 2.7% as soon as NVIDIA’s valuation exceeded $1 trillion. Those who tried to work in a relaxed mode were mercilessly criticized, the publication’s interlocutors say, and complained directly to Huang.
Interestingly, the «veterans» companies are in no hurry to retire, despite having earned enough money — they are probably waiting for another stock grant, the anonymous employees suggest. As a reminder, NVIDIA has a special employee stock purchase plan, which is why some of its staff made himself a million-dollar fortune.
The former NVIDIA engineer added that in 2023-2024, employees of almost all seniority levels became rich and regularly heard his colleagues talking about buying a new house while browsing the Zillow real estate website.
The current product manager at NVIDIA said that the company has a separate Slack channel where thousands of employees exchange financial advice. The group caters specifically to employees who own shares in the company — those who sold their shares before the peak are not in the chat.
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