Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang starts selling $925M in Nvidia stock

Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, recently kickstarted the sale of $925 million worth of Nvidia stock by selling 100,000 shares last Friday and Monday, signaling the beginning of a planned sale of up to six million shares that was announced earlier this year in March. The stock price for Nvidia during that time was sitting at $144.56 per share, resulting in Huang pocketing nearly $15 million over the weekend. With Nvidia’s stock price hitting a record high of $154.31, the potential value of the total sale could reach almost a billion dollars, totaling exactly $925,429,000. Despite this staggering amount, it barely makes a dent in Huang’s estimated net worth of $135 billion, placing him at number 10 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest individuals.As per CNBC, Huang’s recent stock sale was long planned and structured using a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan as a precautionary measure to prevent insider trading accusations. The timing of Huang’s stock sale aligned perfectly with Nvidia’s record-high valuation. This sale strategy isn’t new to Nvidia, as its executives and directors executed a similar 10b5-1 plan last year, raking in over $1.8 billion, with Huang himself netting $713 million by selling six million shares – the same quantity he is set to sell this year. Despite these significant sales, Huang still holds a substantial stake in Nvidia, evidenced by the 75 million shares listed under his direct ownership in the SEC filing, along with another 783,375,400 shares owned indirectly through trusts and LLCs. In addition to his stock ownership, he received total compensation of $49.9 million last year, exceeding the $44 million he earned in 2023.The phenomenal growth of Nvidia transpired over the past couple of years, predominantly fueled by the AI (artificial intelligence) surge that propelled the company’s stock price to unprecedented heights. From a modest $5 per share in the late 2010s, the stock price escalated to around $25 to $30 in 2021 due to GPU shortages, before plummeting to $15 in late 2022. However, in the years following, the stock skyrocketed due to advancements in AI and technology. By late 2024, Nvidia had surpassed Apple as the most valuable company globally, making it worth more than the combined valuations of Amazon and Meta.