Why Does Jensen Huang Choke People With Gold?

David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang will choke his best people with gold so they will work with him. The line is from a Medici family letter in another book Senra read. The family was trying to persuade a sculptor to move to Florence, and the letter ends: come, I will choke you with gold.

Huang treats Nvidia's stock like his blood and goes through the allocation reports. Managers can refer someone for a special look. Huang reviews the top contributors and gives one-off grants that vest over four years. The employee then gets an email whose subject line authorizes the grant for extraordinary contributions and states why.

He can also reach into the company and award stock directly, without waiting for the annual review, so people doing great work feel it at the time. The direct award is another sign Huang stays in every level of the company.