Nvidia CEO Wants To Pay Workers ‘As Much As Possible,’ Calls $8B In Taxes ‘A Privilege’ Amid Samsung, SK Hynix Pay Push

• Jensen Huang says the chipmaker aims to reward employees generously as its AI-driven growth generates unprecedented wealth.
• Samsung and SK Hynix workers recently secured higher wages and profit-sharing terms after contentious negotiations.
• Huang pushed back on AI doomsday warnings and called for American chip companies to compete globally.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he aims to pay his employees “as much as I can,” while projecting that the AI chipmaker could pay about $8 billion in U.S. taxes over five years, framing both as a consequence of the company’s extraordinary success.

“The fact that I can afford to pay $8 billion in taxes over five years is a privilege,” Huang told CBS News on Saturday. “Instead of paying people as little as possible to get their work, I try to pay people as much as possible.”

Huang’s comments come as chipmakers see their businesses expand multifold, fueling calls from workers for a larger share of the industry’s booming profits. In South Korea, employees at Nvidia’s key memory suppliers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix recently secured richer compensation packages after contentious labor negotiations.

At Samsung, workers approved a deal in May that averted an 18-day strike. The agreement included an average 6.2% wage increase and a new semiconductor performance bonus worth 10.5% of business performance earnings.

SK Hynix workers also pushed back against an initial agreement in August. After further negotiations, the union approved a revised deal last week that increased the cash portion of profit-sharing bonuses to 50% from 40%, while retaining a 6.3% wage increase. 

Huang Pushes Back On AI Doomsday Warnings

In the CBS interview, Huang also dismissed predictions that AI could cause catastrophic harm by the end of the decade, calling such claims “doomsday narratives.”

“2030 is not going to be the end of the world,” he said, arguing that such warnings are “not grounded in science.”

He also opposed additional AI-specific regulations, saying existing laws covering cybersecurity, product liability, and unauthorized access should be applied first.

On China, Huang said American technology should benefit the U.S. first but argued that chip companies should ultimately compete globally. “Every single chip company should go and serve the world,” he said.

Retail View On NVDA

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for NVDA remained ‘bearish,’ unchanged over the past two weeks, with traders looking ahead to the bilateral talks during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit later this week for trading cues.

“$NVDA I think we will have some good news by Wednesday that will really push this higher,” a trader wrote. “This doom and gloom over AI is crazy. Xi and Trump meeting will help calm markets immensely. Truth is both have an interest in growing their economies, especially Trump with all the other stuff going on.”

Nvidia shares have been broadly range-bound over the past month, up only about 0.4% from Aug. 19 to Sept. 18.

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