What's going to happen to NVIDIA now that they've reached 3tn market cap? For the current employees and long timers... I've read stories of mid-level engineers who reportedly earned more than $60M via stock appreciation. Imagine the numbers for the more senior folks. How will NVIDIA keep folks around who are post-economic? And for all the new folks... The value proposition is complex. The company is the most valuable (by market cap) in the world. If they are heavily compensated via RSUs, the assumption is that there is significant remaining upside to be gained. It's incredibly difficult to continue orders of magnitude stock appreciation after reaching the absolute zenith... NVIDIA is an obvious tech darling - it looks and feels like a version of Google in the mid to late 2000's - but I'm really interested to see if the immense financial success of the stock will end up driving out the core talent group (eg, the long timers who are now mega rich) while also limiting access to new upstart talent who don't see a path to outsize financial success. Curious what others think!!
David Wohlreich
7mo
I really enjoy studying business situations like this (what my old boss used to call a "major parking lot changing moment") in public or private companies, as it's one of the few ways to really take compensation off the table as a major talent dynamic. Like with OG employees at a high flying startup, marginal compensation is never going to be material to employee decision-making, so you see much more "pure" motivation. Once the de facto golden handcuffs vest, the folks who stick around are genuinely interested in the problems to solve and the company culture. On the other hand, you probably have a massive problem with rest & vest clogging things up before facing a significant attrition issue as folks vest out, which create real challenges for long term org planning and of course TA. I do agree that the fear that the major upside has been pushed out could have an impact on hiring, but the cachet of being the darling of the tech scene and a critical player in AI may be enough to offset that fear. Being the head of comp or recruiting at Nvidia right now would be absolutely fascinating.
Glen Pryer
7mo
I’m not sure Nvidia’s stock value can yet be called a trend. It straight up a trend?. Is 4t possible? Maybe. I will say this. Failure at a company can be resolved in most cases. It’s harder when it’s success that disrupts the ecosystem of hungry smart employees driving to success. I can think of a number of companies that saw serious problems post big profit lift and therefore suddenly rich employees who were the glue that created that success in the first place either shifting to easy mode or finding a beach to sit on. All that being said, if they deliberatly start planning for that it can be overcome and they can scale. Diversifying the company let’s really smart people chase new and interesting dreams. It’s dream chasing that makes those super awesome employees. Well and the chance for huge profits. Just my 2 cents
Chris Cole
7mo
It's an interesting and tough situation I imagine. Though name recognition will likely be enough to attract a certain amount/level of talent. If you can keep interesting projects on deck for your principals that helps a ton. I know for me personally, as soon as I was not struggling just to pay my bills, and much of that financial stress was gone, my job became more enjoyable and I could focus on the work, rather than focus on navigating the promotion politics. But these situations are different for everyone.
Tom Hammer
7mo
the flip side of massive public market appreciation is nvidia now has to grant fewer full-value shares per new hire.. obviously new hires dont want the share value to go DOWN, but they can still create very compelling comp packages even if the stock were to plateau for a few years, since unlike options, full value shares have liquid value regardless of appreciation.
Daniel Lee
7mo
I view it similar to Pro Sports Players playing for a contract the next year vs. players who just signed a new large contract. The truly great / motivated will keep producing work, but I think for some others, it's only human nature that they lose motivation and don't grind as a hard after getting such a big cash out.
Kyle Doran 🕔🌌⚛️
7mo
Called Apples HMD hype will be short loved... I think they get cisco'ed
Julian Love
7mo
Nothing can kill your company quiet like success.
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7mosorry Jordan but nvidia is 2.89 trillion rn