Not Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang — This Indian-origin leader was the highest-paid tech CEO of 2025

The year 2025 has seen a good run for the C-suite, who earned way more than an average employee of any given company. CEOs took home an average total of $22.98 million in 2024, as per a report by the Economic Policy Institute in September this year.

Some of the highest-paid CEOs of fiscal 2025 were from the technology sector, according to a report by executive compensation consulting firm Equilar in June.

Highest-paid tech CEO of 2025

The highest-paid tech CEO of fiscal 2025 was Satya Nadella, who took home a fat paycheck of $96.5 million.

This was his highest compensation since he became CEO more than a decade ago, with the board citing the company’s progress in artificial intelligence.

According to a filing by Microsoft, Satya Nadella's compensation included just $2.5 million as salary and 90% of his compensation came from company shares. He received $79.1 million in the previous fiscal year.

Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s third CEO in 2014.

Citing the tech giant's progress in AI, the board compensation committee wrote in a note to shareholders that the results “demonstrate that Satya Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft as a clear artificial intelligence leader for this generational technology shift."

Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing business has consistently posted growth rates.

What about Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and others' pay?

Tech billionaires including Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Jensen Huang were not far behind.

However, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms, was different. He took home a token salary of $1 in FY25 like all other years.

Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook outearns the average American in less than a day’s work. His annual compensation rose by 18% in FY25 to $74.6 million, up from $63.2 million the year before. This includes $58.1 million in stock awards, $12 million in non-equity incentive plan pay, and $1.5 million in other compensation.

Sundar Pichai's base salary remained $2 million in FY25. However, Google parent Alphabet spent a total of $10.74 million on the CEO's salary in 2024, including stock-related income and other company perks. Alphabet in 2024 spent 22% more money on Pichai's security at $8.27 million, including “residential security and consultation fees, security monitoring services, car and driver services, and personal security during all travel.”

Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also saw a sharp rise in his salary in FY25. This was the first time his salary got increased in a decade. In FY25, Huang saw his base salary rise by 49% to $1.5 million, according to a proxy filing with the SEC in May. His total compensation came out to be a whopping $49.9 million, which included stock awards and variable cash.