Intern vs Company: Battle for NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU ends in job loss, here’s why

A viral incident stemming from an NVIDIA Roadshow in China has thrown corporate ethics and employee rights into focus, proving that sometimes the value of a high-end tech prize is worth more than a job. 

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The entire saga began innocuously enough, as an intern from a Shanghai company was sent on an all-expense-paid business trip to Suzhou to attend the event. At the close of the function, the intern participated in a stamp-collecting raffle — a pure game of luck — and won the grand prize: a brand-new NVIDIA RTX 5060, valued at roughly Rs 30,000-33,000.   

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NVIDIA RTX 5060 led to a corporate clash at work

According to Fast Technology, the intern’s unexpected victory quickly soured when the company’s finance department heard about the prize and demanded the GPU be handed over. Their argument was simple: since the firm covered the costs of the business trip entirely, the resulting prize was automatically deemed company property.   

When the winner refused, maintaining the position that the prize was purely a result of personal fortune and belonged to him, the company grew contentious. Management became involved and repeatedly questioned the intern, insisting the NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU be surrendered. 

Also read: NVIDIA Launches GeForce RTX 5060 Ti: Blackwell Architecture Comes to the Masses

Ultimately, while the GPU was not physically confiscated, the sustained pressure led HR to tell the intern to “look for another company,” resulting in his immediate resignation the same night.   

Legal analysis confirms the intern’s strong position. The consensus among lawyers reviewing the case is that prizes won by random chance are considered personal property, regardless of whether the trip was sponsored by the employer. The key distinction is that the employee was not fulfilling their required job duties while participating in the raffle. The company’s stunning miscalculation — sacrificing a promising employee and incurring negative press over an asset worth a few hundred dollars — demonstrates a remarkably short-sighted corporate perspective that prioritized a zero-sum outcome over retaining talent.

Quantifying the value of the NVIDIA RTX 5060

To truly grasp the significance of the intern’s refusal, one must understand the hardware’s market position, especially in India. While the previous generation RTX 4060 currently retails in the Indian market between Rs 27,000 and Rs 30,000, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is projected to launch starting at around Rs 33,000. For a young professional or an intern, a free piece of hardware worth this much represents a substantial, often unattainable, initial investment for a high-performance personal computer.   

The 5060, built on the efficient Blackwell architecture, is designed as the new mainstream powerhouse, primarily targeting high-refresh-rate 1080p and capable 1440p gaming. For core gaming, the card features 4th Generation Ray Tracing Cores, offering 58 TFLOPS of RT performance, coupled with 8GB of high-speed GDDR7 memory. But the real value of the card extends far beyond frame rates.   

The RTX 5060 delivers an impressive 614 AI TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second). This high level of dedicated compute power allows a professional or student to run complex local Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced AI applications, such as image generators or fine-tuning models, directly on their machine.   

This ability to perform local AI computing offers a massive productivity boost. It is the difference between relying on expensive, recurrent cloud computing services (like AWS or Azure) and possessing the ability to develop, iterate, and refine code or content instantly and independently. Holding onto this 614 AI TOPS powerhouse is strategically rational; it is equivalent to securing a critical competitive advantage in the contemporary professional sphere.   

Defending principle vs prize

The company’s demand was based on a flawed assumption: that paying for the intern’s travel expenses automatically granted them ownership of his personal luck. This overlooks the fundamental distinction between official work duties and the random outcome of a raffle. 

The intern’s refusal to surrender the GPU was not an act of simple greed; it was a defense of personal property and, critically, a defense of a vital tool for his professional future in an AI-driven world. Given the immense financial and career-related value of the RTX 5060, and the weak ethical and legal stance of the employer, the intern’s decision to quit over the principle was entirely understandable.

Also read: NVIDIA roadshow showcases GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and AI-powered laptops

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Vyom Ramani

A journalist with a soft spot for tech, games, and things that go beep. While waiting for a delayed metro or rebooting his brain, you’ll find him solving Rubik’s Cubes, bingeing F1, or hunting for the next great snack. View Full Profile