From Elon Musk to Satya Nadella: America’s highest-paid CEOs in 2025 and how much they earned; check full list here

America’s highest-paid CEOs received huge compensation packages in 2025, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk topping the list at $132.3 billion, far ahead of every other executive, Visual Capitalist reported.

Figma CEO Dylan Field ranked second with $864 million, followed by Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra at $821 million and Opendoor CEO Kasra Nejatian at $741 million, according to data from Equilar and The New York Times.

The compensation figures include salary, bonuses, stock and option awards, and other benefits. Stock and option awards are valued at the time they are granted, so the figures do not necessarily mean the CEOs received that amount in cash or ultimately made that much from the awards.

Elon Musk tops the list

Musk’s $132.3 billion package is worth more than all the other pay packages in the top 25 combined.

However, the figure is not a $132.3 billion salary or cash payment. It is the grant-date value of a long-term Tesla stock award.

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According to regulatory filings, Musk’s performance award is divided into 12 stock tranches. Each tranche generally requires Tesla to meet both a market capitalisation target and an operational target.

Tesla’s market capitalisation targets range from $2 trillion to $8.5 trillion. The operational targets cover vehicle deliveries, self-driving car subscriptions, robots, robotaxis and Adjusted EBITDA.

The targets include:

• Tesla market capitalisation: $2 trillion to $8.5 trillion across 12 levels

• Vehicles: 20 million delivered

• FSD: 10 million active subscriptions

• Robots: 1 million delivered

• Robotaxis: 1 million in commercial operation

• Adjusted EBITDA: $50 billion to $400 billion

Each completed tranche represents shares equal to roughly 1% of Tesla’s adjusted share count and gives Musk the ability to direct the voting rights associated with those earned shares.

However, earning those voting rights is different from receiving the full economic benefit of the shares. Musk generally must remain in continuous service at Tesla through the applicable 7.5- or 10-year vesting period before the shares vest.

The final tranche requires Tesla to reach an $8.5 trillion market capitalisation and complete all 12 operational milestones.

Who are the other highest-paid CEOs?

Dylan Field of Figma ranked second with compensation of $864 million.

Shankh Mitra of Welltower ranked third at $821 million, while Kasra Nejatian of Opendoor ranked fourth at $741 million.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe ranked fifth with $403 million, followed by Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah at $281 million.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan received $205 million, while Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav received $165 million.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon ranked ninth with $119 million, followed by Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora at $100 million.

Chime Financial CEO Christopher R. Britt received $99 million.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser each received $96 million, while Wells Fargo CEO Charles W. Scharf received $95 million.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan received $93 million.

Musk’s $132.3 billion is not cash

The $132.3 billion figure represents the grant-date value assigned to Musk’s compensation package, not cash paid to him in 2025.

How much Musk ultimately receives depends on Tesla meeting the required targets and the shares vesting over the applicable period.

As of September 2026, Forbes ranked Musk as the world’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of roughly $923 billion. His wealth includes significant holdings in Tesla and SpaceX, alongside interests in other businesses.

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CEO pay rises sharply

The high compensation was not limited to Musk. Across the 100 highest-paid CEOs in the US, median compensation reached $39.4 million in 2025.

That was 35.8% higher than the previous year.

The figures show how heavily executive compensation can be influenced by large stock and option awards, rather than just salary and cash bonuses.