A friend of mine works for the tech company Nvidia in London. I won’t say who he is or provide any detail that will identify him, because it’s not fair. He’s not a tech person and when he first went there, in a non-tech role, there was a certain bemusement and disinterest. “They make chips”, he would say, almost shrugging apologetically. He didn’t seem to know what they did either.
It was a conversation stopper and we would change the subject and move on. Then, the tenor of the chat altered. He’d got some shares and he would say what the business was worth compared to the last time we met.
Even then, it seemed temporary and unreal. Yet, sure enough, on the next occasion he would quote a higher figure. Last time he was pinching himself. He was gleeful, shaking his head at the steepness of Nvidia’s upward market capitalisation curve, not believing his own good fortune.