Satya Nadella is netting a record $96.5 million pay package as Microsoft's AI bets paid off

Satya Nadella's record $96.5 million payday shows how Microsoft's AI boom is rewarding its top leader.JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty ImagesSatya Nadella's pay package rose to a record $96.5 million for FY 2025.The bulk of his pay came from stock awards tied to Microsoft's market performance.Microsoft's AI push also increased revenue by 15% to $281.7 billion.Satya Nadella is getting his biggest payday since becoming Microsoft's CEO a decade ago.The chief executive's pay package jumped to a record $96.5 million for fiscal 2025, about a 22% increase from $79 million in 2024, according to the company's proxy filing on Tuesday.The bulk of Nadella's pay — about $84.2 million — came from stock awards tied to Microsoft's market value during the AI boom. Nadella earned a $9.5 million cash bonus and a $2.5 million base salary, with about $196,000 in other benefits.Microsoft's board said more than 95% of Nadella's compensation opportunity is performance-based, citing shareholder returns and growth metrics as the key factors.For fiscal year 2025, Microsoft achieved 15% revenue increase to $281.7 billion and a 16% jump in net income to $101.8 billion.The results "demonstrate that Satya Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft as a clear artificial intelligence leader for this generational technology shift," the board committee said, adding that products like Azure and Copilot drove the strong results.Representatives for Nadella at Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.Nadella became Microsoft's third CEO in 2014. His total compensation has risen over the last decade: about $18 million in 2015, $55 million in 2022, and $79 million in 2024, before reaching this year's high of $96.5 million.Last year, Microsoft became the second company to reach a $3 trillion market cap, joining its rival Apple.The enterprise software giant is one of the most aggressive corporate investors in artificial intelligence.Microsoft is OpenAI's biggest investor and has plowed over $13 billion into OpenAI since 2019. Microsoft's AI strategy has largely relied on a partnership with OpenAI, although the companies have drifted apart lately.Last month, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said during an all-employee town hall meeting that the company plans to make "significant investments" in its AI chip cluster to become "self-sufficient in AI.""It's critical that a company of our size, with the diversity of businesses that we have, that we are, you know, able to be self-sufficient in AI, if we choose to," Suleyman said.Microsoft's shares rose about 23% this year through Tuesday's close.Read the original article on Business Insider

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