After a roller coaster ride in stock prices in recent days, Nvidia's shareholder meeting only lasted for about 30 minutes.
At the 2024 annual shareholder meeting held on June 26 local time, according to the established schedule, Nvidia shareholders voted to approve all 12 nominated directors and executive compensation plans, and agreed to PwC continuing to serve as the company's auditor. Nvidia has not released any major announcements or new products, but rather emphasizes its leading advantage in the field of AI chips.
According to company documents, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun received a salary worth approximately $34 million in the 2024 fiscal year, a 60% increase from the 2023 fiscal year. The total salaries of Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress and Executive Vice President of Global Field Operations Ajay Puri both exceeded $13 million. The compensation of Nvidia executives consists of salary, stock rewards, and non equity rewards, with stock rewards accounting for 78% of Huang Renxun's total compensation.
Previously, under the leadership of Huang Renxun, many executives at Nvidia began to reduce their holdings and cash out. From June 13th to 21st, Huang Renxun cumulatively reduced his holdings of 720000 NVIDIA stocks, with a cash out amount of $94.6 million. But he still holds over 860 million shares of NVIDIA stock directly or indirectly through trusts.
Forbes Real Time Billionaires List shows that Huang Renxun's net worth is $110.7 billion, making him the 13th richest person in the world. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who ranked first on the list, successfully negotiated his salary recently. Tesla shareholders voted to approve Musk's salary plan of up to $56 billion in mid June.
At the shareholder meeting, Huang Renxun responded to the competition issues faced by NVIDIA. Although Nvidia holds over 80% of the AI chip market share, other chip manufacturers and technology companies are striving to catch up and share the cake.
Huang Renxun stated that the company has maintained a leading position in overall strategy. Starting from its bet over a decade ago, Nvidia has invested billions of dollars in AI and shifted its focus from gaming to data centers. Huang Renxun also expressed strong confidence in the new generation of AI chip Blackwell, stating that it is "likely to become the most successful product in Nvidia's history and the entire history of computers.". Nvidia also hopes to collaborate with computer manufacturers and cloud service providers to open up a new market for industrial robots.
Regarding the competition for AI chips, Huang Renxun emphasized that Nvidia's chips provide the lowest total cost of ownership (TOC). Although other chips may be cheaper, Nvidia's products are more cost-effective in terms of performance and operating costs. He said that Nvidia has achieved a "virtuous cycle", which means that when a platform has the most users, necessary improvements can be made to attract more users.
"The Nvidia platform can be widely used by major cloud service providers and computer manufacturers, creating a huge and attractive installation foundation for developers and customers, making our platform more valuable to customers," said Huang Renxun.
The shareholder meeting did not significantly boost Nvidia's stock price. Nvidia closed at $126.4 per share on the same day, a slight increase of 0.25% compared to the previous day. Nvidia topped the world with a market value of $3.34 trillion on June 18th, but shortly thereafter its stock price fell for three consecutive trading days, returning to third place in market value. As of June 25th, Nvidia stopped its decline and rose 6.76% instead.
Tom Plumb, CEO and Chief Portfolio Manager of investment firm Plumb Funds, said, "For a company that has already achieved tremendous success and received a lot of publicity, this is a normal adjustment. Unless there is evidence to suggest that a slowdown in growth momentum is reasonable, I believe Nvidia has not yet reached its highest level in history."