Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is getting a big bump in his compensation, as the company’s stock price has continued to rally, propelled by the boom in artificial intelligence.
Nadella’s total pay for fiscal 2025 climbed 22% to $96.5 million from $79.1 million last year, Microsoft said in a proxy filing after the close of regular trading on Tuesday. That includes more than $84 million in stock awards and over $9.5 million in Nadella’s cash incentives.
The pay plan is largely tied Microsoft’s share performance. So far in 2025, Microsoft’s stock price has risen by 23%, topping the S&P 500′s 15% gain. The shares have more than doubled in valued over the past three years.
Highest Paid CEO?
Even with the whopping 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.
Strong Financial Performance
Microsoft is scheduled to report results for the fiscal first quarter next week. In its fourth-quarter disclosure in July, the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, with sales climbing 18%, the fastest growth in more than three years. Microsoft Azure business is driving expansion as companies’ cloud infrastructure needs grow to meet AI demand.
In fiscal 2024, Nadella’s pay jumped 63% from 48.5 million the prior year, with 90% of his compensation coming from stock awards. Nadella was eligible for a $10.66 million cash incentive last year, but he asked the board’s compensation committee to reduce that number to $5.2 million as a result of a series of cyberattacks that the company endured.
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.
Despite Microsoft’s strong financial and stock performance, the company has seen turmoil among its workforce in recent months. In July, Nadella penned a memo to employees saying that the company’s elimination of more than 15,000 employees in 2025 had “been weighing heavily” on him.
Microsoft has also terminated several activist employees who protested the company’s work with the Israeli military.
