50% of Nvidia Employees Are Now Worth Over $25 Million: How Nvidia Created Thousands of Millionaires

A recent episode of Motley Fool Money titled “Nvidia’s Next Big Market” highlighted a statistic that reframes how investors think about employee equity. At NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction), roughly 50% of employees now have a net worth exceeding $25 million, based on a workforce of about 30,000 to 40,000 people. At the top end, management has reached centimillionaire and even billionaire status.

The 2008 Inflection Point

The wealth creation traces back to a single decision. After Nvidia’s stock fell roughly 80% in 2008, CEO Jensen Huang introduced an Employee Stock Ownership Plan that allowed employees to buy shares at a discount to the lowest price over the prior two years. As the stock recovered and then surged, that two-year lookback became increasingly valuable. Employees consistently maxed out their ESOP contributions, turning the structure into a powerful compounding engine across the workforce.

The scale of that recovery is visible in the stock’s long-term performance. Over the past decade, NVDA shares returned 22,687.47%, rising from $0.87 on a split-adjusted basis to $198.45 as of May 1, 2026. The five-year return alone stands at 1,225.47%.

The Founder’s Stake Framing

The host anchored the discussion in a separate but related observation: “If you have a founder’s stake in the most valuable company in history, then by definition, that is the single best investment you could ever make in human…