Not Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang — This Indian-origin leader was the highest-paid tech CEO of 2025
2025 has been a good year for top executives, who earn much more than the average employee of any company. CEOs will take home an average of $22.98 million in 2024, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute in September of this year.
Some of the highest-paid CEOs in fiscal 2025 were from the technology sector, according to a June report from executive compensation consulting firm Equilar.
The highest-paid tech CEO of 2025
The highest-paid tech CEO of fiscal 2025 was Satya Nadella, who took home a hefty paycheck of $96.5 million.
This was his highest salary since becoming CEO more than a decade ago; The board cited the company’s progress in artificial intelligence.
According to a filing by Microsoft, Satya Nadella’s compensation consisted of just $2.5 million in salary, with 90% of his compensation coming from company stock. It received $79.1 million in the previous fiscal year.
Satya Nadella became the third CEO of Microsoft in 2014.
Addressing the tech giant’s progress in artificial intelligence, the board’s compensation committee wrote in a note to shareholders that the results “show that Satya Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft as a clear AI leader in this generation of technology change.”
Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing business has consistently reported growth rates.
What about the salaries of Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and others?
Tech billionaires like Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Jensen Huang were not far behind.
But Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, was different. He took home a token salary of $1 in FY25, as in all other years.
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook earns more than the average American in less than a day’s work. His annual salary rose 18% to $74.6 million in FY25 from $63.2 million a year earlier. This includes $58.1 million in stock awards, $12 million in non-equity incentive plan payments and $1.5 million in other compensation.
Sundar Pichai’s base salary remained at $2 million in FY25. But Google parent company Alphabet spent a total of $10.74 million on CEO compensation in 2024, including stock-related income and other company perks. Alphabet spent 22% more on Pichai’s security in 2024, spending $8.27 million; this includes “residential security and concierge fees, security monitoring services, car and driver services, and personal security during all travel.”
Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also saw a sharp increase in his salary in FY25. This was the first time his salary had been raised in a decade. Huang saw his base salary increase 49% to $1.5 million in FY25, according to a proxy filing filed with the SEC in May. His total compensation totaled a whopping $49.9 million, including stock awards and variable cash.
