Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes a $2.5 million pay cut after disappointing sales

The last year or so has been a tough one for big tech (opens in new tab) but Nvidia has been one of the better performing companies thanks to its enterprise and AI products and solutions. Still, Nvidia hasn’t been immune to wider economic influences, and it too missed its sales targets.

That miss means Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang is not going to get the maximum payout he could have expected if Nvidia had a barnstormer of a year. According to The Register (opens in new tab), Huang will take home $21.35 million. Gee I don’t know about anyone reading this, but I’d be pretty happy with over $400,000 per week.

Actually, much of Huang’s remuneration comes in the form of stock awards, nearly $19.7 million worth. His base salary is just shy of $1 million, with a further $693,000 made up of ‘other compensation’ which is likely to be made of things like travel allowances and health insurance.

That’s around 10% lower than the previous year. At a time when exploding interest in enterprise products and the crypto mining boom padded Nvidia’s coffers, one could expect there to be a natural pull back. Nvidia’s (169 page) proxy statement (opens in new tab)begins with an overview of its businesses, beginning with the following:

“We had a tough 2022. Our business was affected by economic headwinds, geopolitical tension, and a product supply chain that swung from severe shortage to excess. NVIDIANs rose to tackle each challenge while inventing new technologies and capabilities that position us at the center of the most exciting opportunities in the history of computing.”

According to the Register, Nvidia’s median employee salary was $229,078, giving Huang a 94:1 pay ratio advantage. That median wage number looks high, but given Nvidia’s position at the cutting edge of computing and technology, it’s got to hire some pretty big brains, and that means spending big money on wages.

I wouldn’t feel too badly for Jensen though. Nvidia is well placed to take advantage of an expected boom in demand for accelerated computing, AI products and smarter automation. It’s an area that shows no sign of slowing down and if this year is a blip, future years are looking strong for Nvidia.

Oh, Nvidia makes gaming graphics cards (opens in new tab) too. Who knew?