Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earns almost a whopping $100 million in FY25 — What fueled the hike?

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s compensation increased to $96.5 million for fiscal 2025, marking his highest earnings since taking on the role over ten years ago, with the board attributing the boost to the company’s advancements in artificial intelligence.

The 58-year-old Microsoft CEO's compensation for FY25 jumped 22% to $96.5 million from $79.1 million last year, the company said in a proxy filing on Tuesday, October 21.

The results “demonstrate that Satya Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft as a clear artificial intelligence leader for this generational technology shift,” filing read.

“During his tenure as CEO, Microsoft’s cumulative total shareholder return through June 30, 2025 was over 1500% and market capitalization increased by almost $3.4 trillion,” it added.

Nearly 90% of Nadella’s compensation, including a $2.5 million salary, is in Microsoft shares. Shares of the tech giant rose 23% this year. Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing division has consistently achieved higher growth rates than competitors such as Amazon.com Inc, Bloomberg reported.

Microsoft CEO's performance pay metrics

More than 95% of the CEO’s annual target compensation was performance-based, and 70% of the annual cash incentive depended on meeting predefined financial metric targets.

Nadella’s top deputies also received higher compensation. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood’s total pay was $29.5 million, and Judson Althoff, who was recently promoted to lead Microsoft’s commercial business, received a package of $28.2 million.

Satya Nadella's FY24 pay package

Last year, Nadella's compensation package soared 63% to $79.1 million. Nadella has been Microsoft's CEO since 2014, when he became the third person to hold that position. The previous fiscal's pay components, which included stock awards worth $71,236,392, made up the majority of the salary package, $5.2 million came from the 'Non-equity Incentive Plan' and $169,791 through ‘All Other Compensation."

Satya Nadella served over 3 decades at Microsoft

Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 and held several positions in the company, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Director, Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise, President of Server and Tools, Senior Vice President for Online Services Division,  Senior Vice President for Search, Portal, and Advertising.

Is Satya Nadella the highest-paid CEO in the US?

Even with a whopping $96.5 million package, Nadella is not the highest-paid CEO in the US. Coherent CEO Jim Anderson tops the list of highest-paid CEOs with a nine-figure salary. In 2024, Anderson earned a total salary of $101,497,009, Mint earlier reported, citing a report by Equilar. The report revealed that more than 90% of Jim Anderson's compensation came in the form of long-term equity awards.