I’ve worked for many companies and no CEO comes close.
Over the past 2 decades, there have been ups and downs, but his belief in his company, his employees, and his product was always there.
Every three months after quarterly results, he stands up for 2 hours+ to explain his vision, long term goals, short term goals, where to improve, celebrate successes.
His vision that GPU computing would lead to something big at some point, investing in in starting in 2004 and never giving up.
The internal culture of the company to not waste time, to be intellectually honest about your work and that of others.
The efficiency of making decisions. Multiple times, I’ve seen him cancel chips that were weeks from taping out: the market had shifted, let’s reasses and do something better.
E.g. one mobile chip was cancelled on January 10, 2007. The day after the iPhone was introduced.
At other companies, we’d waste months knowing that our project was essential dead before the hammer finally came down.
His technological knowledge, which is still top notch.
The way he deals with low level engineers. I suspect that he learns their names before entering a meeting to put them at ease. (The higher up, the more demanding he becomes, or so I’ve heard.)
The benefits that were introduced over the years. Very long maternity and paternity leaves. Better than minimum wages for custodial and kitchen employees. I love how the internal employee survey results are really used to make things better.
A culture of not assigning blame. This is a huge one. He has said multiple times on the (internal) stage that he doesn’t want accountability. Accountability results in conservative decisions. Risks must be taken to survive in this industry.
I could go on forever.
He’s not a perfect human by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s a fantastic CEO.