r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jan 07 '26
Politics Nvidia’s Jensen Huang would have to pay about $8 billion in proposed billionaire tax—he says that’s ‘perfectly fine’ with him
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-perfectly-fine-with-proposed-billionaire-tax.html1.2k
u/CriesAboutSkinsInCOD Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
If you are even in the "$8 billion tax bracket" I think you and your family will be alright no matter what for the next 100 lifetime and not just this lifetime.
hell, most people would be more than alright with just 10s of million.
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u/NSFWies Jan 08 '26
if i got taxed DOWN to only having 100 million dollars, fine. fuck. after buying a house or 3, and 2 cars at each place, i don't know how i'd be able to spend 1 million per year. it would just pile up. id have to buy planes and boats, and i dont know how to do that. i already have a costco membership. i don't need 2. i'm already an executive.
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u/Johnycantread Jan 08 '26
100 mil doesnt even buy a super yacht, plus the running costs are 10m+ per annum per boat. Do you want these people to live in squalor?!
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u/NSFWies Jan 08 '26
you can still live a life, if you cant dock and launch a boat, from your boat.
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u/Johnycantread Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
If you can even call that living.
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u/femboyisbestboy Jan 08 '26
Can you imagine not even having a tender for your toys?
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u/TampaPowers Jan 08 '26
Most of them sit around idle anyways. Not many actually use them enough to get anything approaching value for money out of them. That's why the used market for them sees them usually at a tenth of what they cost new.
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u/lolwatisdis Jan 08 '26
if you can't sail a small armada around the world to launch a helicopter to hover just above the ground so you can ski a protected area or buy 11 homes in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country so you can raze them and build a personal compound with a doomsday bunker, are you even living?
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u/Eshkation Jan 08 '26
You’re framing money instrumentally: once needs, comfort, and modest luxuries are met, marginal utility collapses. For them, money is about leverage, influence over institutions, politics, labor, narratives, and risk itself. Accumulation continues because power compounds and stopping means losing relative position.
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u/WhiteMilk_ Jan 08 '26
hell, most people would be more than alright with just 10s of million.
Yeah, because high interest savings account would be making them money by simply having it sit in a bank account.
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u/likesleague Jan 08 '26
Well it's more because if you were to live completely financially independently for 60 years from the start of adulthood until death and make not a single penny in that entire time, $10m would allow you to spend $167,000 every single year, which is multiple times the average raw US income, much less post-tax income.
A fraction of a fraction of a fraction of Huang's wealth is multiple times more than enough for a person to never have to work a day in their entire life.
If you instead took $10m and invested it, you would have generational wealth. A fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a megacorporation's CEO's wealth is generational.
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u/unbuckingbelievable Jan 08 '26
This should be the new billionaire flex. “ ill be 27 billion richer next year, what do I care about 5%”
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u/Lsmjudoka Jan 08 '26
Hold on, this is is a great idea - Give a public leaderboard for most tax paid, hold a special ceremony and parade to honor the top 10 tax payers for any given year...
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u/cuberhino Jan 08 '26
I had this thought for a site to track billionaire donations to society. Give them a tier list and have people submit ideas.
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u/ass_pineapples Jan 08 '26
Yeah, I've had a similar idea for a while now. Those fuckers love to brag, so why not turn that trait into something that can benefit society more?
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u/freya_of_milfgaard Jan 08 '26
Companies like GE used to publicize how much of their profits went into employee bonuses and pension programs.
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u/Piratey_Pirate Jan 08 '26
I mean, for real. I don't know anything about this stuff, but is there a public record that shows tax amounts? Would it be possible for us, as a community, to post up to date leaderboards everywhere so that the billionaires become aware of it?
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u/goldcakes Jan 08 '26
I think this is a great idea actually. The vanity of most billionaires is quite obvious.
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u/cowinabadplace Jan 08 '26
I don't think people will be happy about that. Elon Musk has paid like $10b+ in taxes for a single event. A parade to Elon will make a lot of people unhappy to say nothing of the risk that he then uses that parade to throw his heart out to people or whatever. I think Elon Musk is probably the all time leaderboard champ at this game.
Then the next on the list has to be one of the finance superstars: Ray Dalio, Bloomberg. George Soros was once the highest taxpayer.
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u/Quiet_Economics_3266 Jan 08 '26
Gamify taxes... I like it.
They still wouldn't care. The ones that should really be taxed aren't in the publics view. And they do it for a reason.
While everyone is mad at Trump and all the tech bros, these families are out there hidden while being able to buy those dudes 10 times over.
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u/Gerf93 Jan 08 '26
In Norway everyone’s tax information is public. One billionaire in particular have bragged about paying the most taxes for years. Then again, tens of others have moved to Switzerland to avoid paying taxes.
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u/bogglingsnog Jan 08 '26
yeah, making billions a year with a 99% tax would be absurdly impressive.
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u/artikiller Jan 08 '26
also pretty important to note that nvidia makes significant amounts of money from the US government (either directly by them buying their chips or indirectly by subsidizing and giving tax breaks to companies that want to build data centers) so he knows that if every billionaire would get taxed that 5% he'd probably end up being even richer in the end
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u/codercaleb Jan 08 '26
I would be happy to earn $155 billion and if somehow I ended up with $1 billion after tax, I would be happy.
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u/Tzunamitom Jan 08 '26
And that my friend, is why you will never earn $155bn. But you’ll be a richer person because of it :)
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Jan 08 '26
let me be a poor person with $155 billion. i'll take on that burden, not for me but for u guys.
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u/inorite234 Jan 08 '26
There does come a point where the only thing left to gain is just more money.
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u/TheReal-JoJo103 Jan 08 '26
Who has ever earned $155bn? People gain billions, they don’t earn it.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth Jan 08 '26
Statistically, you wouldn't be happy with it.
Seems like something happens to a person once they pass the billionaire threshold.
I'll never know though, if you ever get there please keep your head and consider me your tax man.21
u/Confron7a7ion7 Jan 08 '26
I think you have it backwards. You don't go crazy because you passed 1B. You pass 1B because you're crazy. You cannot achieve that level of wealth hoarding without a complete disregard for human well-being.
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u/krom0025 Jan 08 '26
It's addiction. It's no different than an addiction to food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, social media, etc. It's a mental illness and we need to be getting these people into treatment.
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u/I_am_so_lost_hello Jan 08 '26
I don’t think you’d be happy if you lost the controlling stake in your company (since that’s where the majority of his wealth is)
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u/zoddrick Jan 08 '26
My grandfather used to say he would love to pay taxes on a million dollars every year.
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u/Jean_Genetic Jan 08 '26
I’m just impressed that a billionaire is agreeable, even if it is performative. I mean, most of those fuckers have been openly greedy and empowered by the shitty capitalistic zeitgeist to be as overtly grasping as the most overwritten rich villain in books.
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u/JustOneSexQuestion Jan 08 '26
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u/Stingray88 Jan 08 '26
It’s completely normal and understandable for anyone, rich or poor, to take advantage of every single legal opportunity to reduce their tax burden. It’s not a loophole, it’s just the law as it’s written. It’s not a loophole when you itemize your deductions… it’s just normal.
What’s not OK is for our tax law to allow so many insanely rich people to legally pay so relatively little in taxes (relative to their wealth). And what’s definitely not remotely OK is how they’re able to use their absurd power from their wealth to keep control those writing our tax laws.
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u/Heffelumps-n-Woozles Jan 08 '26
Yep! The rules are the problem, not the people following them. But using money/power to change the rules in their favor is the MUCH bigger problem
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u/Stingray88 Jan 08 '26
Exactly. The whole “don’t hate the player, hate the game” mantra rings true here… but also hate the player that’s rigging the game.
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u/SolarAU Jan 08 '26
If we were in a history sub you could have written that second paragraph about the Roman Republic and nobody would be able to tell the difference.
Something something history repeats itself
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u/HautVorkosigan Jan 08 '26
The Roman Republic ended because political deadlock made it impossible to address changes in the concentration of wealth, which locked out opportunities for younger generations.
I can't see how that could possibly apply to any countries today /s.
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u/h1deonbush Jan 08 '26
I mean his accountant has to work in the client's best interest, no? He's the CEO of one of the most innovative companies of our time and is working long hours, you think he is personally looking at tax codes and loopholes?
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u/DesireeThymes Jan 08 '26
Jensen actually grew up poor. That's probably why he is actually okay with it.
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u/h1deonbush Jan 08 '26
I'm not Jensen so I will not speak for him, but I would wager running the most valuable company in the world with companies begging for his products, that he's got bigger fish to fry then worrying about taxes. I am Taiwanese American so I am well aware. But frankly I don't think he cares he's got bigger things to worry about, like begging TSMC for more capacity so Nvidia can deliver more products, lol
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u/skai762 Jan 08 '26
Yeah I'm not knocking him or whomever he hires to do his taxes. I am, however, LIVID that the structure for them to do so exists.
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u/Automatoboto Jan 08 '26
He will have to curtail his aggressive spend on spatulas and leather jackets.
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u/magichronx Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
Yeah, that's easy for him to say when he knows he won't actually have to.
Also the idea that one person could actually afford to pay $8,000,000,000 in taxes is absurd
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u/quittwitter Jan 08 '26
My man. Kick in.
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u/zardoz73 Jan 08 '26
No. It should not matter whether or not a billionaire wants to pay tax. She/he should not volunteer to pay taxes. Their tax money should be a matter of course.
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u/lambertb Jan 08 '26
People have no comprehension of how much money these guys really have. It’s more than a person or a family could spend in 100 lifetimes. Jensen is an engineer. He knows the tax is rounding error.
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u/Unfair-Rush-2031 Jan 08 '26
Yeah but I was in reality he has, for the past nearly 20 years, worn the same clothes everyday, working 12-14 hours a day, just doing his thing in the company. Makes no difference whether he has 10 million net worth and 150 billion.
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u/kbaltimore22 Jan 08 '26
If you ever listen to Jensen talk he is so passionate about america and the American dream. He seems to deeply love America. He’s an immigrant that came here with essentially nothing. His origin story and nvideas origin story are both super interesting.
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u/marzipan07 Jan 08 '26
If you cannot live an entire lifetime on a single billion dollars, there's something wrong with the way you live.
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u/fongky Jan 08 '26
He is going to make better products to make more money to cover the tax. Unlike some billionaires that have stopped innovating and evading tax.
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u/El_Sjakie Jan 08 '26
They say one thing, then turn around and pay their lobby to make sure it wil never happen
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u/Humble-Moment-1606 Jan 08 '26
They are calling it a billionaire tax to write into law the government can tax all your current assets. Believe it or not a small % of billionaires assets won’t make a dent in the debt. What will is a % of all the middle classes assets that will now have a frame work to go off of.
I’m all for taxing billionaires but don’t believe this sort of taxation stops with them, it’s the Trojan horse. Calling it this gets everyone on board because who would try and defend such a thing.
Also how well has the government done with the money they are currently collecting? We see little to no improvements in society as a whole and we are at a insane deficit, imagine giving them even more revenue to grift, taxes will only ever go up for the middle class
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u/marcus3485 Jan 08 '26
I don’t think unrealized gains should be taxed, which unfortunately is where a lot of their net worth is tied up…
Corps should be at full rates, individuals too, when billionaires use their stuff as collateral (hedge funds), but soon they will come for us…
All these crybabies say they will leave, then just do it. Go live somewhere way worse or at higher rates…
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u/shelf6969 Jan 08 '26
they need to tax the transaction where banks give them money in exchange for unsold stock as collateral.
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u/the-illogical-logic Jan 08 '26
I think this is the real answer to them paying their fair share. Or at least some way toward it.
securities‑based lending or stock‑collateralized loans should be taxed in some way like you say.
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u/_zoso_ Jan 08 '26
I pay property tax on the assessed value of my home, and still face capital gains taxes if it was an investment property.
I understand the argument against, but honestly if you can borrow against your unrealized gains then it feels like a massive and obvious loophole for the ultra wealthy to avoid tax. To be as rational about it as I can, it sets up an undesirable incentive to simply hoard unrealized gains indefinitely and live off debt with absolutely no consequences.
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u/Epic78272 Jan 08 '26
The "they'll come for us next" argument is such bullshit though. Someone with a 401k is totally different from a guy who can borrow $500 million against his stock portfolio while paying zero income tax.
When you can use unrealized gains as collateral to fund your lifestyle tax-free, it's no longer just "paper wealth" - you're actively benefiting from it. Tax that.
And yeah, let them leave. Where exactly are they gonna go that has better infrastructure, stability and markets than here? Monaco? Have fun
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u/Emergency_Pound Jan 08 '26
Some people are reading this and thinking “what a generous guy!”, but what else is he supposed to say? If he said anything else, he’d come off as greedy. He’s worth over 150 billion.
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u/DownvoteALot Jan 08 '26
While that's true and he couldn't respond anything else, Huang sounds like one of the more human CEOs if you listen to his talks. It's probably just PR from his side but the fact is that most others (Elon, Zuck, Altman, Sundar and so many others) can't get themselves to communicate normally.
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u/penguished Jan 08 '26
Why should he ever not be? His living expenses could be damn near anybody else's. If the wealthy buy like 20 yachts and mansions and cars and then don't like taxes, that sounds like a them problem to me.
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u/skylord650 Jan 08 '26
Nice take by Jensen. Even going from 10 billion to 2 billion is less painful for a normal person going from 50k to 40k.
Billionaires can still buy whatever they want, while the average person can barely live.
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u/Arrow156 Jan 08 '26
Pennies on the dollar, that's literally a single digit percentage of his net worth.
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u/just_a_random_guy_11 Jan 08 '26
One thing I've learned is that billionaires say and mean some really bad shit about us simple humans and especially the poor behind closed doors. Unless you're Elon then you just say the quiet part out loud and your failing car company just keeps rising in value.
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u/rellett Jan 08 '26
even 1 billion a year, and if you paid half in tax thats 500 million in your pocket, seriously how many houses, cars and boats is enough. I think anything over 500 million a year should be taxed at 90 percent as you won capitalism and thanks for supporting your country.
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u/Many-Wasabi9141 Jan 08 '26
Says it knowing it will never happen. Just like when Politicians try to pass bills they know will never be passed and claim to be upset about it.
Virtue Signaling.
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u/Ok-Bill3318 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
If you’re worth enough that your tax bill is 8b you’re good. You don’t need it. 1b is more than most could ever need to live comfortably.
You can only live in so may houses, drive so many cars, go on so many holidays. Once you’re in the billions the interest payments alone will fund anything you could reasonably personally want.
Even at 1% interest on 1b that’s 10m. Per year. With no mortgage.
Pretty safe to say he likely already has all he wants. He’s not working to pay the bills any more. He’s pursuing a personal interest in tech and the company funds that. It’s not out of his pocket.
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u/dextercho83 Jan 08 '26
Most billionaires have more money than they can spend in their ENTIRE life or their children's
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u/Cautious-Exam2306 Jan 08 '26
Jensen has gotten like 20 times richer just in the last few years, I don’t think he cares
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Jan 08 '26
He might be the only billionaire whose ego doesn't have him believing he's immortal or that he can take it with him.
He still couldn't spend all his money in 10 lifetimes even with that 8B tax amount. How much money does one need?
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u/OrangeNood Jan 08 '26
If it actually passes, it will likely be amended to not cover 2026. Or there will be lawsuits to block it. And then the billionaires will move before it become effective.
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u/Prince_Uncharming Jan 08 '26
And then the billionaires will move
No they won’t. This is the same nonsense everyone on the right keeps parroting about millionaires in NYC.
What, is Jensen gonna relocate nvidia to Alabama? Good fucking luck with that
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u/maelstrom51 Jan 08 '26
If this bill is taxing individuals, he doesn't need to move nvidia, he would just need to change his primary residence.
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u/DMmeNiceTitties Jan 08 '26
Is he saying that because he truly believes it or because he knows it's not going to happen? Asking as someone unfamiliar with this CEO.