How NVIDIA Combats the Student Loan Crisis

It’s pretty hard to focus on inventing far-out artificial intelligence products when you’re stressed about paying off student loans racked up when you were living on Cheetos and Mountain Dew. So Nvidia (No. 38) decided to help its employees who are drowning in debt. For the past two years, it has been offering full- and part-timers assistance through a program administered by loan servicer EdAssist. Staff who have been with Nvidia for over three months can apply for reimbursements of up to $6,000 a year, or $30,000 total. So far, the company has reimbursed more than $500,000.

As VP of employee experience Beau Davidson puts it, taking away some of the worry about finances means “employees can do their life’s best work.”

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Mathias Caetano, a graphic designer who has been with Nvidia for over five years, did the math and thinks he’ll be able to cut down his original repayment timeline by between a half and two-thirds. Even for an A.I. company, that’s pretty far out.

This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Fortune.

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