Despite Nvidia’s staggering $4.5 trillion valuation and CEO and founder Jensen Huang’s $154 billion net worth, his cash bonus this year will only be $4 million if the company meets performance targets, according to a March 6 SEC filing.
For some, a $4 million bonus would be life-changing. But for Huang, it’s a drop in the bucket at just 0.26% of his net worth.
And he won’t even get the full $4 million. After taxes, his bonus for the fiscal year, ending on Jan. 31, 2027, will be just under $2 million—a drop in the bucket for the eighth richest person in the world.
Each year, Huang earns tens of millions from Nvidia, but his base salary this year is only $2 million. It’s a bump from the $1.5 million base salary he received last year, but even that, his cash bonus is limited to a percentage of his base salary. Still, the award is just one part of Huang’s total compensation for this fiscal year, which is yet to be released. In 2025, his total compensation skyrocketed to nearly $50 million from $34.2 million the year before, thanks to the company’s revenue and stock value growth.
Despite this, Huang still receives one of the highest base salaries of his fellow billionaire Big Tech CEOs. Apple’s Tim Cook earns a base salary of $3 million each year, while OpenA’s Sam Altman only earns $76,001 each year from a company worth $500 billion and counting. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has earned a $2 million base salary since 2020, but stands to earn $692 million in the next three years under his new total compensation package. Since 2013, Mark Zuckerberg has taken a symbolic $1 salary from Facebook and later Meta, even as he holds the title of being the fifth richest person in the world.
The most powerful chip C-suite and their modest bonus
Huang is not the only Nvidia C-suite officer looking at a potential bonus in the millions. Other executives named in the filing, including chief financial officer Colette Kress, worldwide field operations executive Ajay Puri, executive vice president Debora Shoquist, and general counsel Timothy Teter, will also receive $1.5 million cash bonuses depending on performance.
The CEO personally involves himself in employees’ compensation and has boasted that he is responsible for the number of billionaires club members at Nvidia.
“I’ve created more billionaires on my management team than any CEO in the world,” Huang said in July 2025 during a panel hosted by venture capitalists running the All-In podcast. At least six Nvidia staffers are billionaires, according to Bloomberg.
Huang said he personally reviews each employee’s compensation and gives out yearly pay bumps to keep workers happy.
“I review everybody’s compensation up to this day,” Huang said. “I sort through all 42,000 employees, and 100% of the time I increase the company’s spend on [operating expenses]. And the reason for that is because you take care of people, everything else takes care of itself.”
