I know this is more business than tech related, but for some reason I am not able to post it to the business community, so I’m posting it here.
"…For Nvidia, after this latest run-up took it north of the $3T milestone, the company is being valued at more than $100M for each of its 29,600 employees (per its filing that counted up to the end of Jan 2024).
That’s more than 5x any of its big tech peers, and hundreds of times higher than more labor-intensive companies like Walmart and Amazon. It is worth noting that Nvidia has very likely done some hiring since the end of January — I think the company might be in growth mode — but even if the HR department has been working non-stop, Nvidia will still be a major outlier on this simple measure.
We are running out of ways to describe Nvidia’s recent run… but a nine-figure valuation per employee is a new one."
I don’t know about Nvidia specifically, but I mostly only see RSUs offered to Staff/Principal level engineers or Director and above on the management track. Many times with a multi year vestment period to act as a retention tool. You can make out good at the exiting end of the deal.
IMHO its a shitty practice. There is risk if the C-level pulls some stupid shit tanking the stock. The reward could just as easily be distributed to employees with a profit sharing bonus that eliminates the risk of my options tanking while vesting. Let the employees convert to options if they want to stake on future company performance.
At least in the US, I could have used the value of my options earlier in life to help with student loans, buying a house, medical issues, having kids, etc. I grew up poor. I “pulled myself up from bootstraps” and am doing well now. I still think the whole system is a dumb gimmick.