CEO pay tops $100 million for record number of US executives in 2025

More US CEOs crossed the $100 million pay threshold in 2025 than any year since 2021, with Elon Musk setting a $158 billion record.

"Executives are increasingly driven by what peers are earning rather than long-term value creation," Warren Buffett wrote in his final Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter.

Shankh Mitra of Welltower received $821 million, one of the largest executive pay packages for a public-company CEO over the past decade. Dylan Field of Figma took home $864 million, while Kaz Nejatian of Opendoor Technologies received $741 million. S&P 500 median CEO compensation reached $17.9 million, with half of chiefs receiving raises of 9.8 percent or more.

The surge in nine-figure pay packages comes as the CEO-to-worker pay ratio widened to 99-to-1 on a median basis, up from 92-to-1 in 2024. Tesla's ratio reached 2,522,203-to-1 against a median worker salary of $62,786.

Nearly a dozen CEOs topped $200 million, including Hock Tan of Broadcom at $205 million and David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery at $165 million. George Kurtz of CrowdStrike received $248 million. Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks each received packages between $100 million and $126 million.

Musk's $158 billion award was so large that C-Suite Comp removed him as a statistical outlier before calculating broader market trends. Excluding Musk, median CEO total compensation rose 13 percent year-over-year to $4.75 million, while the average climbed 26 percent to $8.96 million.

Welltower awarded four executives packages valued at more than $100 million each, making it only the second company in a decade to have four nine-figure executives in a single year. The company said the awards replace bonuses and equity for a decade and are designed to align incentives with shareholders.

Technology was the top-paying sector for CEOs, led by Field's $864 million package at Figma. Real estate ranked second, led by Mitra at Welltower. The health care sector's highest earner was Summit Therapeutics co-CEO Mahkam Zanganeh at $246 million.

The pay figures underscore a widening gap between executives and their workforces that has drawn scrutiny from investors and shareholder advocates. The median pay ratio has risen every year since 2022, from 84-to-1 to 99-to-1. Investors will watch upcoming proxy seasons for increased say-on-pay votes and shareholder proposals targeting compensation practices.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.