The Magnificent 7 companies are worth a combined $14 trillion — here's how much their CEOs make
- The "Magnificent Seven" companies include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.
- They're worth trillions — and their CEOs are remunerated accordingly.
- Here's who earns the most, how much they all made last year, and how it breaks down.
The "Magnificent Seven" companies — Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla — have a combined value of nearly $14 trillion.
Running one of these Big Tech firms also means getting a pretty hefty pay packet. Apple CEO Tim Cook's total compensation last year amounted to $63.2 million, for example, although Amazon's Andy Jassy only received about $1.3 million.
Business Insider looked at these CEOs' total compensation last year through the companies' most recent SEC proxy statements.
Here's how much they earn, who gets paid the most, and a breakdown of their pay:
Tim Cook's total compensation amounted to $63.2 million last year, but his annual base salary has remained the same at $3 million since 2016.
The $63.2 million included his annual base salary, as well as $46.9 million in stock awards and $10.7 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. Then he got another $2.5 million in other compensation, which includes his security expenses and business and personal travel on a private jet.
His 2023 compensation was down by almost 40% compared to a year earlier, when he received $99.4 million. That's because Apple investors were urged to vote against his 2022 pay package by a shareholder advisory firm, so Cook requested the reduction.
Satya Nadella's total compensation was $48.5 million last year, down 12% from $54.9 million in 2023.
As of December, the Microsoft CEO owned 800,667 shares in the company, and much of his pay is tied to company performance, per the proxy statement.
His most recent pay packet includes salary of $2.5 million, $39.23 million worth of stock, $6.4 million in non-equity incentives, and $360,000 for other compensation.
In the decade he's been CEO, his total compensation has surpassed $1 billion, according to an analysis of his earnings carried out by Bloomberg last year.
Jensen Huang received a $34.2 million compensation package for Nvidia's most recent fiscal year, which ended in January. It comprised of $26.7 million in stock awards, $4 million in cash bonuses, and $2.5 million for other expenses, including residential security, and a car and driver.
That's a 60% boost from the year before, when he got $21.35 million. That comprised a base salary of $996,832, stock awards worth almost $19.7 million and almost $700,000 in other compensation. The median CEO-to-employee ratio was 94:1.
Mark Zuckerberg has had a token base salary of just $1 since 2013.
Don't feel too sorry for the Facebook cofounder, though, as he gets millions more to cover security and logistics costs. In 2023, his total compensation came to $24.4 million.
That was down $27.1 million in 2022, suggesting even Zuckerberg was not shielded from Meta's "year of efficiency."
Sundar Pichai's compensation in 2023 came in at $8.8 million.
An SEC filing shows his 2023 salary was reported at $2 million, and he also received about $6.77 million for personal security.
According to a report filed in April 2023, his total compensation in 2022 reached almost $226 million. Most of that sum was the $218 million in equities from a triennial stock grant.
A Google spokesperson said such awards were created to cover a multi-year period to reward long-term performance.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's compensation for 2023 was $1.3 million according to the company's latest proxy report. This included a $365,000 salary and $992,764 for security arrangements.
His realized compensation equaled $29.2 million including the value of his vested shares, which was down 12% from $33.2 million in 2022.
Jassy's 2023 and 2022 realized compensation was significantly lower than the amount he received in 2021 due to Amazon's lower stock price and fewer vested shares in the past two years, according to the filing.
Jassy received $212.7 million in total compensation in 2021 when he took over as CEO from Jeff Bezos.
According to the filing, Jassy's 2021 grant makes up most of his compensation over the next several years. His restricted stock unit award from 2021 doesn't begin to vest until 2023 and more than 80% of the shares are scheduled to vest between 2026 and 2031.
Elon Musk's 2023 compensation is in limbo after a judge rejected his $56 billion pay package on the grounds that he had unfair influence over it because of his close ties to board members.
Musk stopped receiving a salary from Tesla in 2019 at his own request, and his pay package relies on a series of goals set in 2018, including a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of stock options vested once Tesla hits certain targets. When each milestone is passed, Musk gets awarded stock equal to 1% of outstanding shares at the time of the grant. According to Tesla, all 12 targets were hit as of 2023.
Musk's wealth largely comes from his stake in Tesla, but he is also the CEO of X/Twitter, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and SpaceX. He's worth $188 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the world's third-richest person.