Nvidia’s CEO and co-founder, Jensen Huang, received a compensation package worth $34.2 million in the fiscal year 2024, which covered from February 2023 to January 2024. This information came via a document submitted by the company to the USA’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Mr. Huang’s salary grew by 60% compared to the previous year, when he received $21.4 million. In fiscal 2024, his compensation package comprised $26.7 million in stocks, $4 million as cash bonuses, and an additional $2.5 million to cover various expenses, such as home security, a car and a driver. This rise coincided with Nvidia’s share growth spurred by the hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the company being a top manufacturer of AI accelerators. Amid high demand, Huang had to reassure the public that the accelerators were being distributed “fairly”.
Though the company is set to announce its financial results for the first quarter only next week, preliminary information indicates that it is leading in terms of revenue growth. High demand for the company’s AI accelerators caused its share price to triple over the past year, making Nvidia the third-largest company worldwide after Microsoft and Apple. The surge in Nvidia’s share prices also boosted Mr. Huang’s personal wealth. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he currently ranks 18th on the list of the richest people in the world with $80.5 billion, as he owns 3.8% of the company’s shares.
Mr. Huang is not the only Nvidia executive to have witnessed significant salary growth. For the fiscal year 2024, the compensation package of Colette Kress, the company’s chief financial officer, saw a 22% increase to $13.3 million. Also, ordinary employees of the company saw their salary rise. During the 2024 fiscal year, Nvidia’s average worker earned $266,939, a 17% increase from the previous year. Over the last 12 months, Nvidia’s shares have grown more than 200% in value and risen 85% since the start of this year.
