Nvidia stock (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been one of my favorite companies for some time despite the fact that I’m not a techie. The company’s recent move to reward employees with additional Nvidia stock is one more example of why CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang is one of America’s finest leaders. 

On April 1, Nvidia stock started its annual employee performance reviews. In those meetings, employees were notified that they would receive a “Jensen special grant,” a 25% boost in (RSUs) restricted stock units given to employees when they joined the company.

The RSUs will vest over 24 quarters, with the first bunch (6.25%) issued in September. The company is said to be doing this to ensure employees benefit even if its share price falls in the years ahead. 

If this doesn’t tell you what kind of leader Huang is, nothing will. It’s one more reason to own the company over the long haul. 

Here’s why.

A $6 Trillion Company?

Retired Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, best known for his book Stocks for the Long Run, recently provided some commentary about Nvidia as a Senior Economist for WisdomTree (NYSE:WT). 

In his March 11 commentary, Siegel suggested that NVDA stock could be worth as much as $6 trillion in the future, given its status as a momentum investment. 

“The big question for Nvidia, and tech more broadly, is: are we in a 1996-97-like hype cycle where these stocks are still going to get even crazier as we did 24 years ago during the internet mania? There’s no way to answer that question now,” Siegel wrote. 

“There could be 2-3x more upside in Nvidia if it follows Cisco’s valuation path to its peak. To be clear—this is not my prediction of what will happen—just to note as to what is possible in a mega bubble.”

He says that in 2000, tech stocks were trading at 60x earnings. They’re about half that today, so an ongoing boom is more likely than a bust. 

Talent Recruitment Should Remain High

Jensen Huang is smart. He knows that to continue reaping the rewards of a big bet on AI, B+Nvidia needs to continue recruiting top engineers and other talented tech people to keep the bus moving forward.

This 25% boost is akin to companies that become known for their special dividends. One special dividend might not attract the attention of most investors, but two or three in short order surely would. 

The same applies to Nvidia’s Jensen special grant. The news of this extra benefit might get people’s attention for a few days or weeks, but the spotlight will fade. However, if it gives a second Jensen special grant in 2025, the word will get around that Nvidia’s the place to be if you want to be handsomely compensated for hard work. 

As a result of Nvidia’s success, Jensen Huang is now the 20th wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $74.1 billion. It’s up by $30.1 billion in 2024 alone. His jump in wealth in 2024 is the second-highest, bested only by Mark Zuckerberg. 

I have a friend who is quite wealthy and owns his own business. He didn’t want to rub it in with employees, so he drove to work in a beat-up Jeep, leaving his BMW at home to enjoy after work.

While not entirely the same idea, I’m sure Huang knows his good fortune and why it makes sense to spread it around. That’s Leadership 101. 

In the Right Place at the Right Time?

Ultimately, while Huang has always been willing to make big bets on the future, he’s been able to execute these bets because of his employees. No leader of quality doesn’t believe this. It’s the only way to get from A to B successfully. To say that he’s enlightened would be an understatement. 

“In the beginning, Nvidia sold these G.P.U.s to video gamers, but in 2006 Huang began marketing them to the supercomputing community as well. Then, in 2013, on the basis of promising research from the academic computer-science community, Huang bet Nvidia’s future on artificial intelligence,” The New Yorker’s Stephen Witt wrote in November 2023. 

A decade later, Nvidia stock and its shareholders benefited greatly from his patient bet on AI.

There is no question this has little to do with luck but a passion for finding uses for microchips that will define tech’s future. 

“I do everything I can not to go out of business,” Huang told Witt at Denny’s, where the CEO once worked as a dishwasher. “I do everything I can not to fail.”

What’s not to like?   

On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.