dpa
New York
The head of US tech giant Microsoft Corp has been awarded a 63% pay rise in 2024, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.
Most of chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella’a pay package is in Microsoft shares. Meanwhile, the cash incentive was more than 50% lower than Nadella would have been awarded, following his request for a reduction amid recent security issues.
According to the regulatory filing, Nadella received $79.11 million worth of compensation for fiscal 2024, higher than last year’s $48.51 million. The pay package included a $2.5 million salary, while $71.24 million was in stock awards, and $5.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
The significantly higher payment, which is said to be his highest so far since he was paid $84 million in 2014, comes amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, as the company is focused on ensuring the world benefits from the broad technological shift to AI, while mitigating its risks.
In the filing, the Compensation Committee noted that it has executed a pay for performance philosophy. Over 95% of the annual target compensation opportunity for the chief executive is performance-based.
Nadella had requested a reduction in the cash incentive portion of his pay due to the recent security issues. Based on the assessment of operational and financial performance, Nadella would be eligible for a cash incentive of $10.66 million for fiscal year 2024.
Meanwhile, the committee approved a fiscal year 2024 cash incentive of $5.2 million, which represents a more than 50% reduction compared to what he would have been awarded based on the combined assessment of strong financial and operational performance.