Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Made Only $1.5 Million Last Year
Last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had his first base salary increase in a decade. Low compensation is not usually for CEOs who run the world’s most valuable companies. The post Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Made Only $1.5 Million Last Year appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..
Jensen Huang, who arguably runs the world’s most successful company, made only $1.5 million last year, according to the Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) proxy (PRE 14A). That is up $1 million from the year before. That pay was so low because most of his compensation comes from stock awards and “nonincentive compensation,” which can vary. In other words, the $1.5 million was all he could count on. It was his first base salary increase in a decade.
24/7 Wall St. Key Points:
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Last year, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) Jensen Huang had his first base salary increase in a decade.
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Low compensation is not usually for CEOs who run the world’s most valuable companies.
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Huang has a net worth of $98 billion, which makes him the 17th richest person in the world. Nvidia’s stock is down this year, so that figure has dropped $16 billion since January 1. Nvidia is the third most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of $2.7 trillion. The stock has dropped 17% so far this year.
Most of Huang’s compensation for the recently reported year came from a stock award of $38 million. The problem with that award is that, if Nvidia’s stock drops, that sum could go down as well. Huang owns 3.5% of the company he founded in 1993. He turned it from a graphic chip company into the largest artificial intelligence (AI) company in the world.
Huang’s low compensation is not usually for CEOs who run the world’s most valuable companies. Warren Buffett’s cash compensation last year was only $100,000. Because of his ownership in Berkshire Hathaway, his net worth is $166 billion, which makes him the sixth richest person in the world. From 1997 to 2011 when Steve Jobs retired as Apple’s CEO, his base cash compensation was only $1. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO today, had a base cash salary of $3 million last year.
The low base salaries of highly successful CEOs are hard to explain. Do they tell investors that their pay is tied almost completely to performance? Or are they saying that to their employees? Huang and his board did not say.
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The post Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Made Only $1.5 Million Last Year appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..
