Meet the highest paid Indian tech CEO in the US, who earns more than Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella

Running one of the world’s largest tech companies doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the highest-paid CEO. A recent report ranked the top 10 CEOs based on their actual compensation paid (PAC). Interestingly, only one Indian-origin CEO made it to the list, and it’s not Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella or Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

According to a report by C-Suite Comp, Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, is the only Indian-origin Silicon Valley executive to make it to the list of top ten highest-paid CEOs in the United States.

Interestingly, Pichai and Nadella are not on the list despite their companies’ exceptional performance using AI.

The 10 highest paid CEOs in the United States
The list features two matrices: “Total Disclosed Compensation” in 2023 and “Actually Paid Compensation.” Arora’s total disclosed compensation was over $151.4 million in 2023, and he is placed at #10 on the list with an actual total compensation of over $266.4 million.

Arora is an alumnus of Delhi Air Force Public School and served as a Chief Business Officer at Google. After leaving Google in 2014, he headed SoftBank in Japan and since 2018 he has run Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity company.

The list is topped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who earned over $1.4 billion in 2023. Palantir Technologies’ Alexander Karp earned over $1.1 billion. Here’s the full list:

Rank	Name	Business	Compensation
1	Elon Musk	You’re here	1.4 billion
2	Alexander Karp	Palantir Technologies	1.1 billion
3	Shank tan	Broadcom	767.7 million
4	Brian Armstrong	Coinbase Global	680.9 million
5	Safra Catz	Oracle	304.1 million
6	Brian Chesky	Airbnb	303.5 million
7	Jon Winkelried	TPG	295.1 million
8	Jeff Green	Exchange Office	291.7 million
9	Adam Foroughi	Applovine	271.3 million
ten	Nikesh Arora	Palo Alto Networks	266.4 million

Nikesh Arora landed second spot on The Wall Street Journal’s 2023 list
Arora secured the second spot on the Wall Street Journal’s 2023 list of the highest-paid CEOs in the United States, with total compensation reaching $151.43 million, mostly from stock options.

The report highlighted the strong presence of Indian-origin executives among the top earners, with 17 of them making it to the top 500. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, another Indian-origin executive, follows in 11th place with $44.93 million.

Elon Musk and Pichai (also born in India) opted for non-traditional compensation structures in 2023, with Musk receiving no reported compensation and Pichai earning $8.80 million. Meanwhile, Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earned $24.40 million.