How did Nvidia expand nearly 20-fold in just over 20 years?

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In today’s newsletter, we’re looking at how Nvidia expanded nearly 20-fold in just over 20 years.

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The big story

Nvidia’s meteoric rise

A few years ago, Nvidia was largely unknown. It’s difficult to believe, considering the company can now boast about back-to-back earnings beats, a market capitalization of more than $3 trillion, and a stock price that has climbed nearly 200% over the past 12 months — Citi analysts also recently eyed a catalyst that could push the stock a further 27% by January.

So, how can a company grow so much, so quickly? The data behind the evolution of Nvidia’s workforce tells the story, BI’s Emma Cosgrove writes.

Nvidia’s workforce has grown nearly 20-fold since 2003. Beyond its historic rise in market value, this growth has been aided by a slew of employee incentives, including a futuristic headquarters that reflects the company’s “no barriers and no boundaries” philosophy (it’s easy to see why they named the building “Voyager“).

This workforce growth continued through 2024, a particularly brutal year for the Tech industry, during which time Meta and Google made significant cuts.

It’s one of the best-paying firms in Silicon Valley. In 2019, Microsoft’s median employee salary was nearly $20,000 higher than a Nvidia worker. As of January 2024, Nvidia’s median salary (excluding the CEO) had surpassed Microsoft and reached more than $220,000. As the above chart illustrates, it’s also left other tech giants in the dust.

Nvidia’s revenue per employee has recovered after years of investment. The company’s revenue-to-headcount ratio showed a downward trend from 2003 until 2014, and then steady upward progress until the AI boom in 2023. During that year, this ratio doubled. This is in part due to early investment in building a programming software layer called CUDA — the main element that keeps AI builders from easily switching to competing hardware.

However, the company isn’t as far ahead in other areas. Gender representation in the company’s workforce and the semiconductor industry as a whole has remained relatively unchanged in the last decade, Emma writes.

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The Insider Today team: Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Milan Sehmbi, fellow, in London.