Microsoft boss gets 63% pay rise despite asking for cut

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella earned $79.1m (£61m) last year, a 63% increase on his compensation the year before.

That’s despite a request from Mr Nadella to cut an element of his pay package because of the tech giant’s cyber security failings – which saw him take home $5m less than he would have otherwise.

In common with many technology firms, Microsoft has cut thousands of jobs this year, including many of them games division.

But in a proxy statement filed with the US financial authority, the board said the company’s revenue rose 16% in the year to June 30, 2024.

“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company’s performance was extremely strong,” Microsoft’s compensation committee wrote in a letter to shareholders.

It added that it had asked them to “consider moving away from set performance metrics and reduce their cash incentives to reflect personal responsibility” in connection with a series of cyber attacks.

Such an attack was reported in July 2023 by Microsoft, where hackers gained access to the email accounts of about 25 organizations, including government agencies.

Microsoft said the attack originated in China, although the Chinese embassy in London called it “disinformation”.

The tax period runs until June 30, 2024 – just a few weeks before massive internet outage that affected Microsoft Windows computers, causing havoc worldwide.

Although this was not a cyber attack, later in July Microsoft apologized another interruption which was caused by a cyber attack.

“Many lives of absolute luxury”

The compensation committee said it cut Mr. Nadella’s cash payout by more than half to $5.2 million.

This represents less than 7% of his total salary.

Most of his salary, $71.2 million, was made up of stock options.

High Pay Center director Luke Hildyard said “superficially” the gains made sense given Microsoft’s strong financial performance.

“However, one might wonder if $79 million on top of last year’s $49 million for someone already worth hundreds of millions, more money than he could spend over several lives of absolute luxury, it’s really necessary as an incentive reward,” he told the BBC.

“None of Microsoft’s success would be possible without its workers, customers and society at large, so perhaps the proceeds of that success should be shared a little more equally,” he added.

Elsewhere in big tech, Apple boss Tim Cook earned $63.2 million in 2023, while the CEO of the world’s most valuable company Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was paid $34.2 million in fiscal year 2024.

But none of them come close to Tesla boss Elon Musk, whose pay package might be worth it up to 56 billion dollars.