Nvidia built a $5 trillion company while making employees pay for their own lunch—but they get far more lucrative perks like stock discounts

Nvidia may be worth $5.6 trillion, but its employees still have to pay up at the company cafeteria.

The chipmaker fueling the AI boom, led by CEO Jensen Huang, is the most valuable company in the world by market cap, towering above other tech giants like Google, Apple , and Amazon .

But that doesn’t mean the company is giving away free lunch.

Gergely Orosz, a software engineer and author of The Pragmatic Engineer newsletter, highlighted Nvidia’s food policies in a June thread on X after a visit to the company’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters.

“Snacks and coffee are not free: You have to pay for them.

This would be unusual at Big Tech, but no big deal for devs here,” Orosz wrote in a post.

Former employees who spoke to Business Insider clarified the company’s cafeteria meals are subsidized, not free .

While coffee is generally free, employees must pay for some bottled drinks and drinks from on-site cafés.

The company’s food policies have reportedly been around for more than a decade.

A blog by a former intern who worked at Nvidia in 2014 shows even then the food at Nvidia was subsidized, not free, and averaged about $6, or about $8.50 today.

Some food options in 2014 included chicken and pasta, chicken and rice, fish and chips, and sandwiches.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to Fortune ’s request for comment.

It’s unclear exactly what’s on the menu today, but posts on Instagram and TikTok show items like bagels, sushi, açai bowls, sandwiches, and omelettes.

Other options include butter chicken, ramen, pizza, and a full salad bar. @nguyen_we_eatin Ever wondered what meals at a tech HQ look like? @nvidia doesn’t have free, buffet style dining like other companies, but I am really happy with the subsidized food services they provide.