Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Wants to Pay Engineers in AI Tokens

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has proposed a new compensation model for software developers that would supplement traditional salaries with so-called AI tokens. Huang made the remarks at his company’s annual GPU Technology Conference, outlining a far-reaching vision for the future of the working world.

The Concept: Tokens as a Salary Component

According to Huang, engineers would receive a budget of AI tokens in addition to their base salary, which they could use to deploy AI agents and automate tasks. Tokens are units of data that AI systems use to process information, and their use incurs direct computing costs.

“Engineers will earn a few hundred thousand dollars a year as a base salary. I will probably give them half of that additionally in tokens, because every engineer with access to tokens will be more productive.”

Huang described token budgets as an emerging recruitment tool in Silicon Valley. The idea behind it: developers who effectively deploy AI agents should be able to multiply their productivity as a result.

Hundreds of Thousands of Digital Employees Planned

The compensation model is connected to Huang’s overarching corporate strategy. Nvidia currently employs around 42,000 people. Huang has publicly stated that he plans to supplement this workforce in the future with hundreds of thousands of AI agents capable of independently carrying out complex tasks.

AI agents are software systems that can complete multi-step tasks autonomously and with minimal human intervention. Huang sees their deployment not as a decline in software demand, but on the contrary as a strong increase: more agents would mean greater demand for the underlying software infrastructure.

Industry-Wide Debate Over Job Losses

Huang’s remarks come at a time when the impact of AI on the labor market is being intensely debated. Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could potentially automate tasks accounting for 25 percent of all working hours in the United States. The bank anticipates a productivity increase of 15 percent, but also a displacement of 6 to 7 percent of jobs over the course of the adoption phase.

Entry-level positions and roles in the areas of data analysis, document processing, and report generation are considered particularly at risk. At the same time, experts predict the emergence of new professional fields, similar to what occurred in the past with the introduction of the internet or the gig economy.

Implementation Remains Challenging

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding AI agents, experts warn against inflated expectations. According to industry observers, around 80 to 85 percent of all AI projects since 2018 have failed. Integrating AI into existing business processes frequently proves more difficult than the technology itself.

Companies also face a so-called talent paradox: on the one hand, 98 percent of executives expect AI to lead to workforce reductions within the next two years; on the other hand, 54 percent cite a shortage of skilled workers as their greatest structural challenge.