Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
- Nvidia stock surge has created wealth for employees, fueled by the AI boom.
- CEO Jensen Huang said he personally reviews Nvidia compensation.
- Nvidia's H-1B visa filings reveal competitive base salaries for key tech roles.
Nvidia's meteoric stock surge has done more than reward investors; it has created vast wealth for some long-standing employees.
While Nvidia's workforce is relatively small compared to other tech giants, with just 36,000 employees as of early 2025, stock appreciation during the AI boom has turned certain ordinary contributors into millionaires, according to pay data tracked by Levels.fyi.
Nvidia president and CEO Jensen Huang takes a hands-on approach to employee compensation.
"I review everybody's compensation up to this day at the end of every cycle," Huang said on an episode of the "All-In" podcast in July.
Huang also said on the podcast that he's "created more billionaires on my management team than any CEO in the world."
Still, employees who joined Nvidia earlier are likelier to have reaped rewards than newer hires—a pay disparity that employees sometimes openly discuss.
Nvidia doesn't disclose salary data for its workforce, though publicly available work visa filings offer one of the few empirical glimpses into how much it pays for key roles. The figures come from filings that all companies submit to the Labor Department to sponsor H-1B visas, which Huang has stressed Nvidia will continue to sponsor and cover all associated fees amid evolving policies.
The figures only reflect base pay — not the equity and bonuses that typically comprise total compensation packages.
Nvidia received roughly 1,900 certified H-1B applications in fiscal 2025, with some of the 25 most frequent roles including software engineers, research scientists, and product managers.
Software engineers can make anywhere from $92,000 to $425,500 in base pay, while research scientists can make from $104,000 to $431,250, and product managers can make from $131,029 to $379,500.
Big Tech salaries amid the AI boom have seen companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft forking over similar figures.
Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Here's what Nvidia pays across key roles:
Engineer salaries
ASIC Engineer — $163,925 to $368,000
CAD Engineer — $136,000 to $310,500
Dev Ops Engineer — $140,000 to $270,250
Hardware Engineer, Electronics — $92,000 to $368,000
Manager, Engineering — $203,879 to $391,000
Mask Design Engineer — $110,187 to $230,000
Mechanical Engineer — $102,336 to $247,250
Mixed Signal Design Engineer — $151,091 to $310,500
Physical Design Engineer — $96,000 to $310,500
Senior ASIC Engineer — $128,000 to $310,500
Senior Systems Software Engineer — $117,499 to $356,500
Software Engineer — $92,000 to $425,500
Software QA Engineer — $133,432 to $322,000
System Design Engineer — $124,197 to $253,000
Systems Software Manager — $208,125 to $425,500
Test Engineer — $124,197 to $287,500
Verification Engineer — $119,184 to $368,000
Architect salaries
Architect — $104,000 to $425,500
Architecture Manager — $207,093 to $425,500
Senior Architect — $150,821 to $356,500
Solutions Architect — $108,722 to $356,500
Research scientist salaries
Research Scientist — $104,000 to $431,250
Product and analyst salaries
Business Systems Analyst — $140,000 to $310,500
Product Manager — $131,029 to $379,500
Program Manager — $75,462.00 to $368,000
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