According to foreign media reports on October 24, Nvidia is redoubling its efforts to help employees in Israel affected by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company will add a bonus to its Israeli employees on their upcoming paydays as a "little help," according to newly leaked internal emails. Previously, Nvidia was already providing care packages and temporary housing to those in need.
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Huang also said Nvidia is pushing to raise at least $10 million by the end of the month by matching employee donations that support humanitarian efforts in the region.
"Some people want to donate to Israeli relief efforts, while others want to help innocent Palestinian civilians. You can decide to support humanitarian efforts in Israel, Gaza, or both," the email read. Nvidia has raised $4.5 million in the past two weeks, and the company is matching every $1 in donations received. Huang added that his own donation would be paid separately.
"This devastating war has caused unimaginable suffering and turned the lives of our families in Israel upside down, and we all fear for their safety," Huang said in an email.
A spokesman for Nvidia declined to comment.
Nvidia is one of the U.S. technology companies directly affected by Israel's war. The company, which spent $6.9 billion in 2019 to acquire Mellanox, an Israeli provider of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage, has a large presence in the region and currently has about 3,300 employees in the country. According to reports, Huang Jenxun said in another email that nearly 400 Nvidia employees have returned to serve in the military.
This follows reports that an Nvidia employee was kidnapped by Hamas earlier this month. Jensen Huang confirmed in an email earlier this month that the daughter of Mellanox founder Eyal Waldman was killed in an attack. In addition, one of a pair of NVIDIA employee brothers died while performing a mission.
"I extend my deepest condolences to the family who have suffered a tremendous loss," Huang wrote in an email. "NVIDIA employees around the world will be available to our colleagues in Israel and take over any work they do. We are here to support you."
Nvidia also canceled an artificial intelligence conference scheduled for this month in Tel Aviv, citing growing conflict in the Middle East.