As one of the biggest companies in the world, you can expect the CEO of Microsoft to earn a pretty decent pay packet, but in a year that saw the tech giant slash jobs as it pivoted to artificial intelligence, it's probably not a good time to go around splashing the cash.
Alongside PCs, the Windows operating system, and its gaming giant Xbox, Microsoft has thrown itself into the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, which seems to be progressing faster than anyone can keep track of.
Amid fears that artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs, Microsoft unironically delivered a list of 40 jobs it thinks will be safe and 40 it thinks are on the chopping block. May 2025 saw a flurry of negative press when Microsoft announced it would be laying off around 3% of its global workforce. This led to around 9,000 jobs being lost, which caused a stir considering the company reported some $25.8 billion in quarterly net income in late April.
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If that wasn't enough, it came alongside reassurance that it still planned on spending $80 billion on developing data centers that would train artificial intelligence models, as well as deploying AI and cloud-based applications.
There's been further controversy as executive producer Matt Turnbull made a LinkedIn post that advised its 9,000 axed staff to turn to ChatGPT for support.
With all of this, the fact that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has enjoyed a bumper pay rise isn't sitting well with many. As reported by The Register, Nadella earned a jaw-dropping $96.5 million for Microsoft's fiscal 2025.
Marking a 22% increase on the year before, Nadella's earnings include a $2.5 million base salary that remains unchanged since 2023, while the rest is made up of $84 million in stock awards, $9.5 million in a non-equity incentive plan, and a healthy $196,000 in 'other' compensation.
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Still, Microsoft has defended Nadella's beefy bonus, noting that the company has tripled revenue, quadrupled net income, and quintupled diluted earnings per share (EPS) since he rose to the top in 2014.
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The financial year that ended on June 30 saw Microsoft report sales of $281.7 billion, a net profit of $101.8 billion, and an impressive EPS of $13.64. Aside from LinkedIn and Windows OEM and Devices, revenue rose by double digits in every division.
Praising Nadella's leadership, Microsoft said that its CEO should be rewarded as a way to "encourage his continued leadership and drive sustained business growth and shareholder value."
It's also important to note that his earnings are tied to the company's stock price, which has notably doubled in the past three years – especially thanks to advancements in AI.
Still, Nadella's pay is in stark contrast to those left behind after 9,000 people were let go. The remaining Microsoft employees have a median pay of $200,972, with Microsoft concluding: "Based on this information, for fiscal year 2025 the ratio of the annual total compensation of our CEO to the annual total compensation of the median employee was 480 to 1."