Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may be a billionaire because of his 3.4% stake in Nvidia, but he only recently got a raise — after making the same salary for the past decade.
The 62-year-old chief executive now makes 166 times more in overall compensation than the median Nvidia employee.
Huang received a salary just shy of $1 million, around $996,800, each year from fiscal year 2014 to 2024. In the fiscal year 2025 ending January 26, 2025, Huang’s base salary rose 50% to $1.5 million, according to a new proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
Nvidia’s compensation committee noted in the document that this was “Huang’s first base salary increase in 10 years” and that the move “was appropriate” considering the base salary for executives at comparable companies. For example, AMD CEO Lisa Su made a base salary of $1.26 million effective July 2024.
Huang’s total compensation for the fiscal year 2025 was $49.9 million. This figure includes the $6 million Huang received as part of a non-equity incentive plan, $38.8 million in stock awards, and $3.5 million for residential security, driver services, security monitoring, and car expenses.
The filing noted that the median Nvidia employee made $301,233 in fiscal year 2025, for a CEO to median employee pay ratio of 166:1.
Another SEC filing submitted last week by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, shows that the typical Google employee makes a comparable amount, with a median salary of $331,894 in 2024. Google CEO Sundar Pichai makes 32 times more than a mid-level employee at the company, with an annual compensation of $10.7 million last year.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Huang’s overall compensation has been steadily rising, even if his base salary remained stagnant for a decade. He made $34.2 million in fiscal year 2024 and $21.4 million in fiscal year 2023.
Huang is the 17th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $97.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The bulk of Huang’s fortune derives from his Nvidia stake, which equaled $96 billion at the time of writing. The remaining $1.9 billion of his net worth is in cash.
Nvidia has become a growing AI giant after capturing 70% to 95% of the market share for AI chips. It counts Meta and Microsoft among its top customers. Nvidia stock has risen over 1,500% in the past five years and 33% in the past year.
