Nvidia CEO reportedly hands staff a raise despite lackluster quarter for company

In what is claimed to be a leaked company-wide email, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reassured employees that despite “significantly lower than expected” second-quarter earnings, there would be no layoffs at the company in the immediate future. The CEO instead promised employees a raise to help against global inflation. 

In a preliminary report (opens in new tab) released earlier this week, Nvidia expects its overall revenue to fall nearly $1.4 billion short of its expected $8.1 billion in the second quarter. The company noted that its gaming division severely underperformed as its revenue fell 44% year over year.

Yet an excerpt from an email purported to be from Nvidia CEO Huang, obtained by Business Insider (opens in new tab), says: “What does this mean for us? Will we lay off staff? No. Instead, we will give you a raise to help take care of your family because all of you face extremely high inflationary pressures.”

Huang also stated that the company would “find and eliminate all waste of time, processes and materials and improve upon them. Take this opportunity to make Nvidia faster, leaner, and more agile.”

All in a bid to cut costs and increase efficiency, as the company stock price fell more than 8% since Monday’s report. This last quarter wasn’t all bad for Nvidia, though, since it did see huge gains in its Data Center and Automotive businesses.

There’s no word on how these raises will take shape or when they will be implemented if they are to be. The email also stated the company isn’t ruling out future layoffs, just no layoffs right now.

Huang closed out by stating that Nvidia should focus its investments on areas like the Metaverse and AI to help with future growth, two areas that require some serious computing power, which should give Nvidia’s powerful Grace superchip (opens in new tab) a chance to shine. 

Nvidia declined to comment on the veracity of the email. 

Nvidia isn’t the only tech giant going through a rough time. Meta reported that it suffered its first revenue decline (opens in new tab) in over a decade, while Intel is also struggling to get by (opens in new tab) with its billions, which aren’t quite as numerous as they once were.