Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang raked it in last year
Given Nvidia’s performance over the last year, CEO Jensen Huang would seem to deserve a raise. The company was the best performer of the Magnificent 7 in 2024, rising 171.2% and creating more than $2 trillion in market wealth for shareholders.
And a raise he got: Huang’s compensation rose likewise, according to Nvidia’s most recent proxy statement, filed on May 1.
Huang’s “summary compensation” in fiscal 2025 — Nvidia’s fiscal year ended in January — rose to $49.9 million, up 46% from the prior year. Summary compensation is the longstanding official line companies publish on what their CEOs make.
But critics have said the “summary compensation” number vastly understates the economic value of the restricted stock units, stock options, and equity grants that often account for the bulk of CEO compensation.
So a few years back, the SEC began requiring a separate disclosure, known as “compensation actually paid” or CAP, that attempts to capture the impact of annual stock price moves on equity-based compensation. By that measure, Huang made a cool $344.2 million in last fiscal year. For context, that’s more money than 738 companies in the Russell 2000 generated in revenue over the past 12 months, per Bloomberg data.
It’s not exactly on the level of what Palantir pays its CEO, but I’d take it.
Huang’s “summary compensation” in fiscal 2025 — Nvidia’s fiscal year ended in January — rose to $49.9 million, up 46% from the prior year. Summary compensation is the longstanding official line companies publish on what their CEOs make.
But critics have said the “summary compensation” number vastly understates the economic value of the restricted stock units, stock options, and equity grants that often account for the bulk of CEO compensation.
So a few years back, the SEC began requiring a separate disclosure, known as “compensation actually paid” or CAP, that attempts to capture the impact of annual stock price moves on equity-based compensation. By that measure, Huang made a cool $344.2 million in last fiscal year. For context, that’s more money than 738 companies in the Russell 2000 generated in revenue over the past 12 months, per Bloomberg data.
It’s not exactly on the level of what Palantir pays its CEO, but I’d take it.
