Are Nvidia, Tesla Employee Stock Grants Allowing Staff To Buy Yachts — Former AI Chief Says 'Most People Don't HODL'

Andrej Karpathy, former director of AI at EV giant Tesla Inc TSLA, said on Sunday that a few Tesla employees might be on a yacht right now, thanks to their stock grants, like Nvidia Corp NVDA employees.

What Happened: Karpathy said that the company has had “very few” true believers of the company working there and taking all employee stock options over a decade. These people did not sell the stock immediately and could now be on a yacht, Karpathy said, while adding that most of these long-term holders, however, are likely awaiting for Tesla to achieve fully autonomous driving with its FSD software before they sell at a premium.

However, many employees do sell, Karpathy acknowledged. “Most people don't HODL…,” Karpathy said. He was responding to Openfounder co-founder JD Ross who reminisced about his roommate who went on to join Nvidia after graduating in 2013. “I wonder which yacht he lives on now,” Ross wrote.

Nvidia Vs. Tesla Growth: Both Nvidia and Tesla provide their employees with stock grants. While Nvidia shares have risen about 1879% over the past five years and over 100,000% since listing in 1999, Tesla shares have jumped 12,679% since listing in 2010. Compared to Nvidia, Tesla’s is a significantly smaller jump. However, Tesla has also had fewer years on the exchange as a listed, public company.

Why It Matters: Musk has often hailed stock grants at Tesla. In March 2022, the company CEO said in an X post that Tesla has made several workers millionaires with stock grants. He attributed it as among the reasons for the company not having witnessed unionization thus far.

However, in December, Bloomberg reported that the EV giant did not offer any merit-based equity awards in 2023 to some of its salaried employees. Tesla employees usually get merit-based stock grants in addition to their existing equity during performance reviews. Whether this is a long-term shift in Tesla’s compensation plan is unknown, the report said.

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