Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella earned $79.1m (£61m) last year, a rise of 63% compared to his compensation the year before.
That was despite a request from Mr Nadella to reduce one element of his pay package because of cybersecurity flaws at the tech giant – which resulted in him getting $5m less than he otherwise would have.
In common with many tech firms, Microsoft has cut thousands of jobs this year, including many in its gaming division.
But in a proxy statement filed with the US financial regulator, the board said the company’s revenue grew by 16% in the year to 30 June 2024.
“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company’s performance was extremely strong,” Microsoft’s compensation committee wrote in a letter to shareholders.
It added he asked them “to consider departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his cash incentive to reflect his personal accountability” over a number of cyber attacks.
One such attack was reported in July 2023 by Microsoft, where hackers gained access to the email accounts of around 25 organisations, including government agencies.
Microsoft said the attack originated in China, though the Chinese embassy in London called this “disinformation”.
The fiscal period runs up to 30 June 2024 – just weeks before the massive internet outage which affected Microsoft Windows PCs, causing chaos around the world.
While that was not a cyber attack, later in July Microsoft apologised for another outage which was caused by a cyber attack.
The compensation committee said it reduced Mr Nadella’s cash pay by more than half, to $5.2m.
That represents less than 7% of his total pay.
The bulk of his pay, $71.2m, was made up of stock options.
High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard said “superficially” the earnings made sense given Microsoft’s strong financial performance.
“However, we might also ask whether the extra $79 million on top of $49 million last year for someone who is already worth hundreds of millions, with more money than they could spent over multiple lifetimes of absolute luxury, is really necessary as a reward of incentive,” he told the BBC.
“None of Microsoft’s success would be possible without workers, customers and wider society so perhaps the proceeds of that success should be share a little more evenly,” he added.
Elsewhere in big tech, Apple boss Tim Cook earned $63.2m in 2023, while the chief executive of the world’s most valuable company Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was paid $34.2m in the 2024 fiscal year.
But none of them come close to Tesla boss Elon Musk, whose pay packet could be worth up to $56bn.
