Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Reluctant to Fire Employees, But Will ‘Torture Them to Greatness’

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said he is reluctant to lay off employees, choosing instead to “torture them into greatness” – a strategy he claims has turned the company into one of the world’s most valuable .

Huang — whose employees can work up to seven days a week, sometimes until 2 a.m., but are said to stick around because of the great compensation — said his approach to employees has been key to Nvidia’s success. , the $3.1 trillion chipmaker whose semiconductors power artificial intelligence technology.

“When you fire someone, you’re saying, a lot of people say, ‘it wasn’t your fault,’ or ‘I made the wrong choice,’ or ‘there’s too little work,'” Huang said during an interview. in June when asked why he doesn’t fire people.

Huang also recalled his previous job cleaning toilets as he explained his belief in giving workers opportunities to move up in the organization.

“Look, I used to clean bathrooms and now I’m the CEO of a company. I think you can learn it. I’m pretty sure you can learn that,” Huang said.

“And there are many things in life that I believe you can learn, and you just have to be given the opportunity to learn them.”

Huang, 61, whose net worth is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $111 billion, said he is “constantly learning” from the 60 people who report directly to him.

“And so I don’t like to give up on people because I think they can improve,” the Nvidia boss added.

“And so it’s tongue in cheek, but people know I’d rather torture them in grandeur.”

Huang said he thinks “coaches who really believe in their team, torture them to greatness.”

“And often, they’re so close, don’t give up. They are very close to greatness.”

A group of current and former Nvidia employees told Bloomberg News earlier this week that employees are staying at the company despite the fact that its work environment is a pressure cooker, requiring long, grueling hours and meetings. that often go into shouting matches and fights.

But employees end up staying with the company because of its generous stock compensation package.

Stock options granted to employees can only be vested after four years – giving them a strong incentive to stick around.

Since 2019, Nvidia’s stock price has increased by more than 3,700% – meaning that engineers who have worked at the firm since then recently became newly minted multimillionaires.

Last year, just 5.3% of Nvidia’s employees left the company, although the number dropped by half as the firm’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion.

By comparison, the average turnover rate for the chip industry is 17.7%.

The Post has sought comment from Nvidia.