Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits he criticizes everything his 42,000-plus employees show him: ‘You can’t go a day without some criticism’

With a market cap topping $5 trillion, Nvidia has become the shining star of the artificial intelligence boom—minting enormous wealth for investors and many of its employees. But for the chipmaker’s over 42,000 workers, success comes with high expectations.According to CEO Jensen Huang, part of Nvidia’s edge stems from a management style he’s described as torturous—one he said he learned, in part, from his Taiwanese parents. “[To a] Taiwanese parent, nothing is ever good enough, and you can’t go a day without some criticism,” he told Singapore-based news channel CNA. “And I’m kind of the same way. You can’t show me something without me giving you some criticism. And I guess in a lot of ways that’s my form of torture.” Huang said he believes feedback works best when delivered immediately, and with improvement (not punishment) in mind. “Just like a Taiwanese parent, once the feedback is given, you’re back to loving the person again,” Huang said. “And so, I’m always critical of everybody’s work so that I can help them be better.” Nvidia’s brutal culture appears to be working: employees stay for years, while Jensen Huang works seven days a week Huang pointed to Nvidia’s high retention rates as evidence that the demanding culture works. During fiscal year 2025, Nvidia’s overall turnover was just 2.5%, according to the company’s latest sustainability report. Roughly one in five employees have been with the company for at least a decade, while two in five have stayed for five years or longer. “People don’t quit easily from Nvidia,” he said. “…I think that ultimately the purpose of leadership is to create the conditions for other people to realize their dreams, to be part of yours of course and to be part of something bigger, but to be able to turn their job, their profession, their craft hopefully into their life’s work. And at NVIDIA you could do that.” Plus, even though Huang has sky-high expectations for Nvidia