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What is it like to work at Nvidia, the $3 trillion AI chipmaker with a storied work culture over 30 years in the making?
Long-time CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview this year that he rarely conducts layoffs and instead prefers to “torture employees into greatness.” It turns out, he might not have been joking.
Being the AI chip brain behind ChatGPT and other popular forms of AI has led Nvidia — and its vested employees — to benefit financially from the AI boom. A June poll of over 3,000 Nvidia employees (out of around 30,000) showed that 76% were millionaires and one in three had a net worth of more than $20 million because of the company’s growth. Since October 2022, Nvidia’s stock has jumped over 1,000%.
However, a Monday Bloomberg report revealed that though Nvidia’s boom may have created millionaires, its work culture and expectations for those employees remain the same: It’s a “pressure cooker.”
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Ten current and former Nvidia employees who spoke with Bloomberg detailed long working hours, yelling and fighting at meetings, and vying for the attention of a supervisor who could have more than 100 other direct reports.
A former enterprise tech support employee claimed he worked every day, including weekends, until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., and that his engineer coworkers worked longer hours. Other employees claimed to have at least seven meetings a day.
Employees who worked less than the norm were called out at company-wide meetings. In December, Huang faced complaints from staff about their “semi-retired” peers. He responded by asking every employee to become the CEO of their time.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Still, despite reports of a stressful work environment, Nvidia has had no trouble retaining employees. The company’s sustainability report for fiscal year 2024 details that overall turnover was 2.7% compared to the industry average of 17.7%.
Nvidia’s low turnover rate could be attributed to the way it gives employees access to stock grants. The stock vests over four years, so an employee gradually gains ownership of the award. So it’s in the employee’s best interest to stick with the company to maximize benefits.
Nvidia is also a famously “flat” organization, with minimal hierarchy, which could make the company an appealing choice. Huang has 60 direct reports.
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