After more than 30 years of operation, chip maker Nvidia has risen to become a technology giant with a capitalization of more than 3,000 billion USD thanks to benefiting from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Many Nvidia employees have also prospered. A June survey of more than 3,000 Nvidia employees found that 76% were millionaires, with one in three having more than $20 million in assets. Nvidia shares have increased 3,776% since 2019.

Yet, even with its wealth, Nvidia’s work culture and expectations for its employees remain the same, according to Bloomberg . It’s what you might call a “pressure cooker” culture.

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Many Nvidia employees became millionaires as the company grew. Photo: Nvidia

A former Nvidia employee often heard millionaire colleagues brag about their newly purchased vacation homes and tickets to events like the Super Bowl and NBA Finals.

As millionaires, they freely buy sports cars and luxury cars, even repainted in Nvidia's iconic colors, but they appear in the company's parking lot more than anywhere else. This partly shows the pressure of work here.

Ten current and former employees at Jensen Huang's company recounted long hours, yelling and screaming at meetings, and competing for the attention of a supervisor who had more than 100 direct reports.

One former corporate tech support employee claimed to work every day, including weekends, until 1 or 2 a.m. His engineering colleagues worked even longer hours.

Others claim to have at least seven meetings a day. One former marketer attended up to 10 meetings, with each meeting often having more than 30 participants.

Those who worked less than normal were singled out at company-wide meetings, according to the story. In December, Huang received complaints from subordinates about “semi-retired” colleagues. In response, he urged everyone to become their own CEO.

Despite the stressful work environment, Nvidia has no trouble retaining employees. The company’s turnover rate was 5.3% in 2023, but has dropped significantly since Nvidia crossed the $1 trillion market cap mark.

The company's sustainability report for fiscal 2024 revealed an attrition rate of 2.7%, well below the industry average of 17.7%.

Such a low ratio may be due to the way Nvidia awards stock to employees: after being awarded stock, they cannot be sold until four years later.

Therefore, the best way to enjoy the shares is to continue to stick with the company to maximize the benefits. This stock bonus policy is considered as the golden shackles to keep employees staying.

Nvidia is also known for its low-level structure, which makes it more appealing to employees. CEO Huang himself has just 60 direct reports.

Despite the cultural differences with other semiconductor and tech companies, most Nvidia employees seem to be happy with Huang's leadership style. He has a 97% approval rating on the recruiting site Glassdoor.

On CBS's “60 Minutes,” Huang said he pushed his employees like that because “if you want to do extraordinary things, you can't be easy.”

(According to NYPost, Tom's Hardware, Entrepreneur)