highest paid ceos 2025
(C): Twitter
From Elon Musk’s headline‑grabbing $29 billion haul to Pichai and Nadella’s tech‑savvy empires, these CEOs dominate headlines not just in Silicon Valley, but also throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Their achievements such as AI breakthroughs, streaming, massive IPOs, make them household names in Gulf boardrooms and Arab news outlets. Controversies over pay, ethics, and labor practices spark lively debate in these regions, too, blending admiration with scrutiny as tech and finance converge on global leadership fame
1. Elon Musk (Tesla)
- Salary: ~$23.5 billion in 2025 (new award totalling ~$29B if performance milestones met)
- Achievements: Spearheaded Tesla’s dominance in EVs, drove robotics initiatives, and maintained multi-horizon ventures like SpaceX and Neuralink.
- Controversies: Past $50B plan voided in court; critics question his divided focus across ventures.
- Years as CEO: Since ~2008;
- Alma Mater: University of Pennsylvania (Physics & Economics), Wharton (BS/Econ).
2. Tim Cook (Apple)
- Salary: ~$770.5 million
- Achievements: Expanded Apple’s services ecosystem, introduced key hardware updates, drove record valuations.
- Controversies: Criticised for supply chain ethics and perceived innovation plateau.
- Years as CEO: Since 2011;
- Alma Mater: Auburn University (BS), Duke University Fuqua School (MBA).
3. Jensen Huang (NVIDIA)
- Salary: ~$561 million
- Achievements: Built NVIDIA into an AI chip powerhouse; GPUs critical to machine learning era.
- Controversies: Timing of stock option vesting sparked debate amid hardware cycle risk.
- Years as CEO: Since co-founding in 1993;
- Alma Mater: Oregon State University (BS); Stanford University (MS).
4. Reed Hastings (Netflix)
- Salary: ~$453.5 million
- Achievements: Transformed Netflix from DVD delivery to global streaming icon; original content innovator.
- Controversies: Rising content costs and flattening subscriber growth raised scrutiny.
- Years as CEO: Since late 1990s;
- Alma Mater: Stanford University (MS in CS), Bowdoin College (BA).
5. Leonard Schleifer (Regeneron)
- Salary: ~$452.9 million
- Achievements: Led breakthrough biologics development, including against COVID and eye diseases.
- Controversies: Criticism over drug pricing and exorbitant executive compensation.
- Years as CEO: Since founding in 1988;
- Alma Mater: Princeton University (BA), SUNY Downstate Medical Center (MD).
6. Marc Benioff (Salesforce)
- Salary: ~$439.4 million
- Achievements: Innovated cloud CRM, merged Slack and Tableau, expanded enterprise footprint.
- Controversies: Pay criticized amid stagnant growth and worker organizing friction.
- Years as CEO: Since founding in 1999;
- Alma Mater: University of Southern California (BS in Business Administration).
7. Satya Nadella (Microsoft)
- Salary: ~$309.4 million
- Achievements: Revitalized Microsoft with Azure, Office 365, and AI initiatives.
- Controversies: Workplace conduct allegations and executive alignment questioned.
- Years as CEO: Since 2014;
- Alma Mater: Manipal Institute (BE), University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (MS), Chicago Booth (MBA).
8. Robert A. Kotick (Activision Blizzard)
- Salary: ~$296.7 million
- Achievements: Built blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty; global gaming power.
- Controversies: Lawsuits over toxic workplace culture and harassment issues.
- Years as CEO: Since 1991;
- Alma Mater: Michigan State University (BA).
9. Hock E. Tan (Broadcom)
- Salary: ~$288 million
- Achievements: Oversaw Broadcom’s aggressive M&A strategy; created a semiconductor-industrial behemoth.
- Controversies: Alleged focus on profits over R&D, significant layoffs, and halted innovation.
- Years as CEO: Since 2006;
- Alma Mater: MIT (BS, MS in Electrical Engineering).
10. Sundar Pichai (Alphabet)
- Salary: ~$280 million
- Achievements: Led AI transformation and cloud expansion at Google/Alphabet.
- Controversies: Under antitrust/regulation pressure; internal dissent over platform moderation.
- Years as CEO: Google since 2015, Alphabet since 2019;
- Alma Mater: IIT Kharagpur (BTech), Stanford (MS), Wharton (MBA).
11. Alex Karp (Palantir)
- Salary: ~$1.1 billion in 2024; similar scale in 2025
- Achievements: Built government and enterprise analytics contracts; brand recognition in defense-tech.
- Controversies: Privacy and ethics around surveillance contracts.
- Years as CEO: Since founding in 2004;
- Alma Mater: Stanford University (JD, Philosophy PhD).
12. Tony Xu (DoorDash)
- Salary: ~$413.7 million
- Achievements: Scaled North America’s leading delivery platform, expanded into groceries.
- Controversies: Gig-worker rights, driver pay disputes, regulatory challenges.
- Years as CEO: Since ~2013;
- Alma Mater: University of California, Berkeley (BS in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research).
13. Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks)
- Salary: ~$151 million in 2023; among top compensated in 2025
- Achievements: Led cybersecurity growth, substantial enterprise adoption of PAN products.
- Controversies: Pay ratio debates amid strong median-worker disparities.
- Years as CEO: Since June 2018;
- Alma Mater: IIT (BHU) Varanasi (BTech), Boston College (MS), Northeastern University (MBA).
