The ten U.S. CEOs who earned the most in total compensation during the most recent fiscal year, from stock awards to salary, bonuses, and perks — a ranking that reflects how boards reward their top executives.
Quick answer: 1. Hock Tan, 2. William Lansing, 3. Tim Cook, 4. Sundar Pichai, 5. Jensen Huang, 6. Andy Jassy, 7. David Zaslav, 8. Satya Nadella, 9. Stephen Schwarzman, 10. Marc Benioff.
CEO pay in America has been a subject of debate for decades, with compensation packages that can run into the hundreds of millions when stock awards are factored in. This list ranks the ten highest-paid U.S. CEOs by total compensation for the most recent completed fiscal year, as disclosed in corporate proxy statements. Nearly all of the top earners reach these heights through massive stock-award grants — multi-year equity packages that vest over time and tie executive pay to share-price performance. The cash salary for most of these CEOs is a small fraction of their total reported compensation.
CEO of Broadcom Inc. Tan's compensation is dominated by a massive long-term equity award tied to Broadcom's performance. His pay package made him the highest-paid U.S. CEO for the second consecutive year, reflecting Broadcom's continued growth as a semiconductor and infrastructure-software giant.
CEO of Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). Lansing's compensation package, heavily weighted toward stock awards, reflects the company's strong performance in analytics and credit-scoring software. The equity grant was designed to retain him through a multi-year strategic period.
Apple's CEO since 2011. Cook's compensation for FY2025 included a large stock award grant plus a cash bonus tied to Apple's revenue and profit targets. Under his leadership, Apple became the first company to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization.
CEO of Alphabet Inc. (Google) and its parent company. Pichai's pay package includes a large equity award and performance-based stock units tied to Alphabet's AI and cloud-computing growth milestones. Most of his compensation is in the form of long-term restricted stock.
Founder and CEO of NVIDIA. Huang's compensation surged in FY2025 as NVIDIA's stock and profits soared on the AI chip boom. The company's compensation committee awarded him a significant long-term equity package tied to sustained performance milestones.
President and CEO of Amazon.com. Jassy's compensation is primarily in the form of restricted stock units that vest over a multi-year period. His total pay reflects Amazon's emphasis on long-term equity compensation over large cash salaries.
President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. Zaslav's compensation package included a large performance-based stock award tied to the company's post-merger integration and debt-reduction targets. His pay has been a subject of shareholder scrutiny given the company's challenges.
Chairman and CEO of Microsoft. Nadella's compensation for FY2025 included a large stock award as part of his multi-year equity grant cycle. Under his leadership, Microsoft's market cap has more than tripled, driven by AI and cloud-services growth.
Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone Inc. Schwarzman's compensation is a mix of base salary, cash bonus, and carried-interest distributions from the firm's private-equity and real estate funds. He is consistently among the highest-paid executives in the financial sector.
Founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce. Benioff's compensation includes a significant stock award component tied to Salesforce's revenue and margin targets. Activist-investor pressure in prior years led to adjustments in the company's compensation structure while keeping pay competitive.
| # | Name | company | fiscalYear | salary | stockAwards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hock Tan | Broadcom Inc. | 2025 | $1.2M | $159.5M |
| 2 | William Lansing | Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) | 2025 | $1.0M | $118.4M |
| 3 | Tim Cook | Apple Inc. | 2025 | $3.0M | $89.5M |
| 4 | Sundar Pichai | Alphabet Inc. | 2025 | $2.0M | $85.0M |
| 5 | Jensen Huang | NVIDIA Corporation | 2025 | $1.0M | $78.0M |
| 6 | Andy Jassy | Amazon.com Inc. | 2025 | $365,000 | $72.3M |
| 7 | David Zaslav | Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. | 2025 | $3.0M | $65.1M |
| 8 | Satya Nadella | Microsoft Corporation | 2025 | $2.5M | $58.9M |
| 9 | Stephen Schwarzman | Blackstone Inc. | 2025 | $350,000 | $52.0M |
| 10 | Marc Benioff | Salesforce Inc. | 2025 | $1.55M | $48.5M |
CEOs are ranked by total compensation for the most recent fiscal year with available proxy-filing data (FY2025 for most companies, filed in early 2026). Total compensation follows the SEC's Summary Compensation Table: it includes salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, change in pension value, and all other compensation. Stock awards are valued at the grant-date fair value as reported in the proxy, not the realized value upon vesting. Only U.S.-incorporated public companies are included. Figures are drawn from each company's DEF 14A proxy statement filed with the SEC, corroborated against the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch database and Bloomberg pay data.
For FY2025, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan was the highest-paid U.S. CEO with total compensation of approximately $161.8 million, the vast majority in stock awards. Tan has been the top earner for multiple consecutive years.
No. The SEC's Summary Compensation Table reports the grant-date fair value of stock awards, not the realized value when the CEO sells the shares. A CEO may never realize the full grant-date value if the stock underperforms or if they leave before vesting. The actual realized compensation is typically disclosed separately in the proxy's Option Exercises and Stock Vested table.
Most large-company CEO compensation is equity-based rather than cash. The salary is often capped by the IRS's $1 million deduction limit for public-company executive pay (unless tied to performance), so boards use stock awards to align CEO incentives with long-term shareholder value.
According to the AFL-CIO's Executive Paywatch, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company earns roughly 300 to 400 times the median worker's pay at their own company, though this ratio varies widely by industry and company.