Huang Renxun's annual salary on the books shrank by 27%, but this year he quietly cashed out $141 million in stocks

According to Dongcha Beating monitoring, NVIDIA's 2026 fiscal year proxy statement submitted to the SEC shows that CEO Jensen Huang's total compensation is $36.3 million, a decrease of approximately $13.6 million from the previous fiscal year's $49.9 million, a 27% decline.

The reduction in compensation is almost entirely due to the decrease in the fair value of equity awards. The 2026 fiscal year equity awards, calculated at the grant-date fair value, amount to $24.8 million, a 36% drop from the previous fiscal year's $38.8 million, accounting for over 90% of the total reduction. The fixed compensation part has remained almost unchanged: base salary at $1.5 million, non-equity incentive at $6 million, and around $4 million allocated for residential security, personal travel safety, and driver expenses.

However, the face value and actual take-home pay are two completely different things. The equity awards recorded in the SEC proxy statement are booked at the "grant-date fair value," reflecting the valuation at the time of issuance, not the actual money received. According to South Korea's BusinessDaily citing disclosure documents, Jensen Huang cashed out 1,113,555 performance stock units (PSUs) accumulated over the past few years in the current fiscal year, amounting to approximately $141 million based on the stock price at the time of realization. In other words, although the newly granted awards on the books have shrunk, the old stocks accumulated during the previous surge in stock price are being significantly cashed out.

This compensation structure is representative of NVIDIA executives: equity constitutes the vast majority, with cash making up a very small portion. When the stock price rises, the actual returns far exceed the face value compensation; when the stock price stabilizes, the face value automatically readjusts, but the equity gains accumulated over the past few years are already in hand. NVIDIA's revenue for the 2026 fiscal year increased by 65% year-on-year, and as of May 12, the market value is approximately $5.36 trillion, still ranking first globally.