Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, earns a staggering USD 151.43 million, surpassing even Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. His impressive compensation and career journey highlight his significant impact on the tech industry.
Indian-born Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, has emerged as the second-highest paid CEO in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal’s list of top earners. Arora’s total compensation soared to $151.43 million, with stock options making up a significant portion. Notably, several other executives of Indian descent have also secured spots among the highest earners. This includes Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, who ranks 11th with a compensation of $44.93 million. The list also features Sanjay Malhotra (Micron Technology), Ajei Gopal (Ansys), and Reshma Kewalramani (Vertex Pharmaceuticals) within the top 120. Arora’s compensation dwarfs that of tech giants like Elon Musk of Tesla and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, both of whom opted for non-traditional compensation structures. Musk received no compensation, while Pichai earned $8.80 million. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta took home $24.40 million. Arora, an alumnus of Delhi’s Air Force Public School, previously served as Google’s chief business officer before leading SoftBank in Japan with a record-breaking compensation package. He has been at the helm of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks since 2018.
