High Salaries of Tech Company CEOs
On May 20th, leading such a large technology company also means getting quite a lucrative salary. For example, Apple's CEO Tim Cook's total compensation last year was as high as 63.2 million US dollars, while Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy's salary is only about 1.3 million US dollars.
The Business Insider magazine looked up the proxies that these companies recently submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and found out the total compensation of these CEOs last year.
Hereinafter are introduced the salaries they received, whose salary is the highest and the details of their salaries:
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Tim Cook's total compensation last year reached 63.2 million US dollars, but his base annual salary has remained at 3 million US dollars since 2016.
This 63.2 million US dollars includes the base annual salary, 46.9 million US dollars in stock awards and 10.7 million US dollars in non-equity incentive plan compensation. In addition, he received an additional 2.5 million US dollars in other compensation, including his security expenses and the cost of business and personal travel on private jets.
Compared with 99.4 million US dollars a year ago, his salary in 2023 dropped by nearly 40%. This is because a shareholder advisory company urged Apple's investors to vote against its 2022 compensation plan, so Cook requested a salary reduction.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella's total compensation last year was 48.5 million US dollars, a 12% decrease from 54.9 million US dollars in 2023.
According to the proxy statement, as of December last year, the Microsoft CEO held 800,667 shares of the company, and his compensation is mainly linked to the company's performance.
His recent compensation includes 2.5 million US dollars in salary, 39.23 million US dollars in stocks, 6.4 million US dollars in non-equity incentives and 360,000 US dollars in other compensation.
Bloomberg's income analysis of Cook last year found that in the 10 years as Microsoft CEO, his total compensation exceeded 1 billion US dollars.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang received 34.2 million US dollars in compensation in Nvidia's most recent fiscal year ending in January this year, including 26.7 million US dollars in stock awards, 4 million US dollars in cash bonuses and 2.5 million US dollars in other expenses (including residential security, car and driver expenses).
This increased by 60% from 21.35 million US dollars in the previous year. The previous year's compensation included a base salary of 996,832 US dollars, stock awards worth nearly 19.7 million US dollars and nearly 700,000 US dollars in other compensation. The ratio of CEO compensation to ordinary employee compensation is 94:1.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Since 2013, Mark Zuckerberg's symbolic base salary has only been a mere 1 US dollar.
But don't feel too sorry for this Facebook co-founder, because he also gets millions of US dollars in security and logistical expenses. In 2023, his total compensation reached 24.4 million US dollars.
This is a decrease from the 27.1 million US dollars in 2022, indicating that even Zuckerberg is also affected by Meta's efficiency improvement year.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai's compensation in 2023 was 8.8 million US dollars.
The documents submitted to the SEC show that his salary in 2023 was 2 million US dollars and he also received about 6.77 million US dollars in personal security expenses.
According to the proxy statement submitted in April 2023, his total compensation in 2022 was nearly 226 million US dollars. Most of it was 218 million US dollars in equity, which came from a three-year stock grant.
A Google spokesperson said that such a stock grant mechanism is set up to reward long-term performance.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
According to Amazon's latest proxy statement, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's compensation in 2023 was 1.3 million US dollars, including 365,000 US dollars in salary and 992,764 US dollars in security expenses.
His received compensation was 29.2 million US dollars, including the value of cashed-out stocks, which was a 12% decrease from 33.2 million US dollars in 2022.
The proxy statement shows that due to the decline in Amazon's share price and the reduction in cashed-out shares in the past two years, Jassy's received compensation in 2023 and 2022 is significantly lower than his compensation in 2021.
When Jassy took over as CEO in 2021 to replace Jeff Bezos, he received a total compensation of 212.7 million US dollars.
According to the proxy statement, Jassy's stock grant in 2021 is the main source of his compensation in the next few years. His restricted stock awards starting from 2021 will not start to be cashed out until 2023, and more than 80% of the stocks are scheduled to be cashed out between 2026 and 2031.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Elon Musk's compensation in 2023 is still undecided. Previously, the judge rejected his up to 56 billion US dollars compensation package on the grounds that he has a close relationship with board members and has an unfair influence on the huge compensation package.
In 2019, Musk himself requested to stop receiving salary from Tesla. His compensation package depends on a series of assessment targets set in 2018, including that once Tesla reaches certain targets, he will receive stock options granted in 12 installments within 10 years. For each major target completed, Musk will receive stocks equivalent to 1% of the outstanding shares at the time of the stock grant. According to Tesla, as of 2023, all 12 assessment targets have been achieved.
Musk's wealth mainly comes from his shares held in Tesla, but he is also the CEO of X/Twitter, Neuralink, the Boring Company and SpaceX. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his wealth reached 188 billion US dollars, becoming the world's third-largest super-rich.