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America’s Highest Paid CEOs in 2024
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Key Takeaways
- James Anderson, CEO of Coherent Corp., was the highest paid CEO in FY2024
- Coherent is an American manufacturer of semiconductors, with over 26,000 employees
CEO pay in the U.S. reached record heights in 2024, with median pay of $16.8 million. This increase is largely driven by performance-based stock awards, reflecting the wider trend of tying executive earnings to shareholder returns.
In this infographic, we rank America’s highest paid CEOs of FY2024, limited to companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue.
Data & Discussion
The data we used to create this graphic was originally featured by Chartr.
| Rank | Name | Company | Pay ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Anderson | 🔬 Coherent Corp. | $101 |
| 2 | Brian Niccol | ☕ Starbucks | $96 |
| 3 | H Lawrence Culp, Jr. | ⚙️ General Electric | $87 |
| 4 | Satya Nadella | 💻 Microsoft | $79 |
| 5 | Tim Cook | 🍎 Apple | $75 |
| 6 | David Gitlin | 🌬️ Carrier Global | $66 |
| 7 | Nikesh Arora | 🔐 Palo Alto Networks | $58 |
| 8 | Shantanu Narayen | 🎨 Adobe | $52 |
| 9 | Rajiv Ramaswami | 🧠 Nutanix | $51 |
| 10 | George Kurtz | 🛡️ CrowdStrike | $47 |
James Anderson – Coherent Corp.
James Anderson, appointed CEO of Coherent in June 2024, quickly became the highest-paid CEO in the U.S. for FY2024, earning $101 million.
It’s estimated that 99% of his total compensation consists of company stock, which surged in value following news of his appointment.
Anderson was peviously CEO of Lattice Semiconductor.
Brian Niccol – Starbucks
Brian Niccol took over as CEO and chairman of Starbucks in September 2024 after leading Chipotle.
Niccol’s appointment is intended to revitalize Starbucks amid declining sales and increased competition. Within four months of his appointment, he was awarded roughly $96 million, primarily through stock awards.
H. Lawrence Culp Jr. – General Electric
H. Lawrence “Larry” Culp Jr. became the first outsider to lead General Electric in its 126-year history when he was appointed CEO in 2018.
Like other CEOs, his compensation is tied to stock performance. Shares of General Electric have climbed 533% over the past five years ending June 3, 2025.
Satya Nadella – Microsoft
Satya Nadella has been CEO of Microsoft for over 10 years, and is credited with guiding the company’s transformation into a $3 trillion dollar cloud computing powerhouse.
Under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has also made several major acquisitions including LinkedIn ($26.2 billion in 2016), GitHub ($7.5 billion in 2018), and Activision Blizzard ($75.4 billion in 2023).
Tim Cook – Apple
Rounding out the top five is Tim Cook, who has been CEO of Apple since 2011.
According to Nasdaq, Cook’s compensation in 2024 grew 18% from the prior year. His 2024 package included a $3 million base salary plus $58 million in stock awards, $12 million in non-equity incentive compensation, and other compensation of $1.5 million.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out the Top 10 Highest Paid World Leaders in 2024 on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.