Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned a total of $96.5 million in fiscal year 2025. This is a 22% increase from his previous year’s pay, making it his highest annual compensation to date. Compared to the typical Microsoft employee, who earns around $200,000, Nadella’s pay is significantly higher.
Details about the executive’s compensation are emerging while the company is under fire for recent choices regarding Xbox, such as job cuts, canceled games, studio shutdowns, and increased pricing. The company has also received widespread criticism for large-scale layoffs, its partnership with Israel, and investments in artificial intelligence, among other issues.
Satya Nadella earns a base salary of $2.5 million, which hasn’t changed since 2019. However, most of his compensation for the fiscal year 2025 came from stock awards, totaling $84.2 million – about 87% of his total earnings. Microsoft disclosed this information in a recent regulatory filing, according to The Seattle Times.
Satya Nadella receives an annual cash bonus in addition to his salary. This year, his bonus was $9.56 million, a significant increase from the $5.2 million he earned last year. He actually asked for a smaller bonus for 2024 because of the recent cybersecurity issues Microsoft faced.
The typical Microsoft employee earned $200,972 in fiscal year 2025, an increase from $193,744 the previous year. However, the gap between CEO Satya Nadella’s compensation and the median employee salary is widening. In 2025, Nadella’s pay was 480 times higher than the median salary, compared to 250 times higher in 2023.
A recent regulatory filing showed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s compensation, and included a statement from the company’s board of directors. The board credited Nadella’s focus on artificial intelligence with improving Microsoft’s performance over the past year. They noted that his leadership team successfully established Microsoft as a leading company in the rapidly evolving field of AI.
This year, Microsoft’s market value surpassed $4 trillion, and its stock price hit a record high of over $535. Currently, Microsoft is the second most valuable company globally, behind only Nvidia.
Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s CEO in 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer. He’s only the third person to lead the company, after Bill Gates and Ballmer. Since Nadella took the helm, Microsoft’s stock has dramatically increased, rising from around $36 to over $520 – a gain of more than 1,300%.
Microsoft’s CFO, Amy Hood, reportedly set a high profit margin goal of 30% for the Xbox division, which is significantly higher than what’s typical in the gaming industry. This new target is thought to be behind several recent Microsoft decisions, like releasing its exclusive games on competitor platforms, increasing the cost of Xbox consoles and Game Pass subscriptions, using AI to automate tasks, canceling certain game projects, shutting down some development studios, and reducing its workforce.
According to Bloomberg sources, Microsoft plans to prioritize game development towards lower-cost projects and titles with strong revenue potential, rather than investing in more ambitious or uncertain games.
Microsoft will announce its latest quarterly financial results on October 29th.
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2025-10-23 19:20