Products
Resources
Equilar Institute
MediaCompany
Meta Platforms recently introduced a new executive compensation structure centered on large equity awards, drawing close comparisons to the aggressive pay model pioneered by Tesla. The new pay structure places significant weight on stock price appreciation for executives, including Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan and Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, with the potential for extensive payouts if ambitious market capitalization targets are achieved.
Looking more closely at the awards, Andrew Bosworth, Chris Cox and Javier Olivan each received 79,324 RSUs, while Susan Li received 43,267 RSUs. In addition, each executive received 653,865 options, with exercise prices ranging from $1,116.08 to $3,727.12. These options will only deliver value if Meta’s stock price increases over the next five years to match these exercise prices; otherwise, the options will expire.
According to Equilar data cited by The New York Times, if the stock reaches the highest exercise price of $3,727.12, the options would be worth $625,592,443. At that level, RSUs would be valued at $295,650,067 for Bosworth, Cox and Olivan, and $161,261,301 for Li. The combined potential payout would be $921,242,509 per executive for Bosworth, Cox, and Olivan, and $786,853,744 for Li.
Performance structures of this scale and design for non-chief executive officers (CEOs) are rare. While long-term equity incentives are common, most large-cap companies balance time-based vesting with performance metrics tied to financial and operational goals for their broader executive teams, reserving more outsized, market-driven awards for the CEO. By contrast, Meta extends a heavily stock price-dependent framework to multiple senior leaders, concentrating a significant portion of compensation on market capitalization growth over a defined period, an approach more typically associated with CEO pay models, such as the one used by Tesla for Elon Musk.
A key distinction between Meta and Tesla, however, lies in the performance framework and measurement period. Tesla’s awards required both market capitalization growth and certain operational milestones to be achieved over a 10-year period. On the other hand, Meta’s grants are tied solely to market capitalization growth and must be achieved in roughly half the time, making them comparatively more aggressive.
The value of compensation realized by each executive will ultimately depend on future stock performance and the timing of option exercises. Additionally, reaching this stock price would imply an approximately sixfold increase in Meta’s market capitalization, assuming shares outstanding levels stay steady over time.
Associate Editor at Equilar
Joyce Chen, Associate Editor at Equilar, authored this post. Courtney Yu, Director of Research, contributed data and analysis. Please contact Amit Batish, Senior Director of Content & Communications, abatish@equilar.com for more information on Equilar research and data analysis.
Roles
Solutions
