Elon Musk Received $23.5 Billion Salary, Declared As World’s Richest CEO Beating Apple CEO Tim Cook

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was the world’s most paid chief executive in the year 2021, as per the new Fortune’s list. In 2021, Musk was also the richest person on Earth. He was compensated approximately $23.5 billion from exercising Tesla stock options as part of a 2018 “moonshot” grant, the report said.

Predictably, all the highest-salaried CEOs on the Fortune 500 CEOs of 2021 are from the sector of technology and biotechnology including Apple’s Tim Cook, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Here is the list of the 5 highest-paid CEOs in the world:

World’s highest-paid CEOs 

1. Elon Musk, Tesla

Tesla stock was extremely successful in 2021 on the back of solid earnings by the company with total revenues of $53.8 billion, up by 71% from 2020. Tesla, the highest-valued car company in the world, delivered 936,000 vehicles in 2021 in essential European and Chinese markets.

2. Tim Cook, Apple

Tim Cook has been Apple’s CEO since 2011. Cook earned a mind-boggling $770.5 million in the year 2021 as part of a 10-year grant of shares equal to $1.7 billion. Under Cook, Apple’s market capitalization has risen up by $2.2 trillion. Apple ranks second on the Fortune 500 list of companies. The company cashed in $95 billion in profits in 2021.

3. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA

Jensen Huang is the co-founder of NVIDIA. It is a tech company known for its Shield gaming consoles and Artificial Intelligence tech. Huang’s compensation in 2021 was 561 million “from expiring options that had been granted in 2011 and 2012, reflecting the approximately 60x increase in the company’s share price over the [past] decade.”

4. Reed Hastings, Netflix

Reed Hastings, the co-founder and CEO of Netflix’s compensation in the year 2021 was $453.5 million, but, Netflix disputed Fortune’s analysis, saying that, “per our proxy statement his compensation in 2021 was $40.8 million, with $650,000 in cash and $39.7 million in stock options.”

5. Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Leonard Schleifer, the co-founder of the biotech firm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which makes many types of drugs that treat conditions like asthma, cancer and chronic pain is the fifth most paid CEO on the Fortune 500 list.