Elon Musk earned more in fiscal year 2025 than any other public company executive—by an almost incomprehensible margin.
Technology was the top-paying sector for CEOs, led by Field. Real estate ranked second, led by Mitra. The health care sector’s highest earner was Summit Therapeutics co-CEO Mahkam Zanganeh at $246 million, which included an option award modification the company disclosed in its filings.
Chief financial officers also saw gains across every market segment. Among S&P 500 companies, median CFO compensation reached $5.94 million, up 3.1% year-over-year. Across the Russell 3000, the median was $2.66 million, up 6.7%. The overall CFO market posted a median of $1.94 million, up 10.6%. The top of the rankings was led by Summit Therapeutics’ Manmeet Soni—who holds a dual COO/CFO role—at $249.1 million in option awards, followed by Welltower CFO Timothy McHugh at $167 million and Fermi Inc. CFO Miles Everson at $134.2 million.
Not every C-suite role moved in the same direction. Chief technology officers in the technology sector saw median compensation rise 10% to $2.59 million, while the average climbed 32% to $4.88 million—the dataset’s five-year trend shows tech executive pay declined in 2022 and 2023 before recovering in 2024 and rising further in 2025. Figma’s CTO Kris Rasmussen led all technology executives at $175 million, followed by Hims & Hers Health CTO Elshenawy at $60.9 million and Symbotic CTO James Kuffner at $37 million. Chief information officers moved in the opposite direction: Median CIO pay fell 7.3% to $1.34 million and the average dropped 19% to $2.13 million, reversing gains from prior years. The highest-paid CIO in the dataset was Humana’s Japan A. Mehta at $9.6 million, followed by Applied Materials’ Brice Hill at $8.5 million.
