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In 2024, the median compensation for the highest-paid 100 CEOs in the U.S. reached a record $25.6 million, marking a 9.5% increase from the previous year, according to data from Equilar. A significant contributor to this surge was a 40.5% rise in stock awards, which averaged $18.6 million, making up about 73% of total compensation.
Top earners included James Robert Anderson of Coherent Corp. with $101.5 million and Brian Niccol of Starbucks with $95.8 million. Notably, Jensen Huang of NVIDIA earned $49.9 million but was excluded from the list due to late proxy filing. In contrast, Warren Buffett received $405,000 from Berkshire Hathaway, and Elon Musk earned nothing from Tesla in 2024 amidst ongoing legal issues surrounding his pay package.
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