Microsoft CEO earns $30.6 million more despite laying off over 2,000 employees in 2024 — salary package represents a 63% raise from the previous year

Satya Nadella keynote speech screenshot
(Image credit: Microsoft/YouTube)

Microsoft’s regulatory filing revealed that its CEO, Satya Nadella, received a $79.1 million compensation package for this year, increasing his salary package by 63% compared to 2023. According to Reuters, Nadella hit this milestone with the help of his stock awards when Microsoft’s market cap jumped to over $3 trillion due to its investment in AI technology.

Note that the $71 million figure is just based on Nadella’s stock awards, which were just $39 million last year. Aside from this amount, he also received a $5.2-million cash incentive, an over 50% reduction from the $10.7 million he was entitled to due to massive cybersecurity breaches involving the Redmond company.

However, even though Microsoft is on a roll with its AI investment, other arms of the company haven’t been performing as well. This is especially true as its gaming studios have suffered massive layoffs. Three months after it finished its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming divisions, including Activision-Blizzard, Xbox, and ZeniMax, which happened during a general downtrend in the gaming industry.

Just a few months later, in May, the company started another run of cuts with the shuttering of three game studios—Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Arkane Austin. More Microsoft employees were again shown the door in September when Xbox reduced its staff by an additional 650. This means that Microsoft’s gaming division has to downsize by at least 2,550 people (probably more) this year.

Microsoft is a massive company with operations in many different fields, so it’s normal for one division to underperform or even suffer some losses. At the same time, another one thrives and pushes the company to new limits. Nevertheless, seeing its CEO get massive bonuses while many employees get the boot still offers poor optics for Microsoft. Hopefully, those affected by the downsizing were offered generous packages like Riot Games’ six-month severance offer, allowing them to get back on their feet even as the gaming industry still struggles to recover.

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • QChronoD
    Microsoft CEO earned an extra $15,000 per person laid off.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    The headline is kind of click bait. At the end of Microsoft's fiscal 2023 year they had 221,000 employees. At the end of their fiscal 2024 year they have 228,000 employees. That's a net increase of 7000 employees YoY.

    Now if we want to talk about quality issues at Microsoft and the $30.6 million more in compensation I'm all ears.
    Reply
  • DS426
    They're all in one ship... well, until you have to walk the planks. What's crazy to me is how terrible firing and layoff communications work these days, sometimes being very misleading and last-second. I know this reduces the risk of Insider Threats, but there's plenty of technology to manage high-risk individuals and situations.

    If you think you matter at these mega corps, think again. You're an expandable assest. I can only these individuals find work quickly and something to their liking -- hopefully job roles and careers that are more enjoyable and rewarding!
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    Any company that has to lay off more than 100 people in a yr should NOT be able to get more pay.

    The top needs to start being punished for punishing the bottom.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    However, even though Microsoft is on a roll with its AI investment

    Please explain this statement. Last I saw Microsoft was losing a "staggering amount" of money on AI as people are refusing to pay for it, and there's no profitability forecast.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-losing-staggering-amount-money-172844085.html
    Reply
  • bill001g
    JamesJones44 said:
    The headline is kind of click bait. At the end of Microsoft's fiscal 2023 year they had 221,000 employees. At the end of their fiscal 2024 year they have 228,000 employees. That's a net increase of 7000 employees YoY.

    Now if we want to talk about quality issues at Microsoft and the $30.6 million more in compensation I'm all ears.
    Not sure about this time but it is fairly well known that microsoft...and many other large companies...have yearly layoffs. They pretty much cut the lowest performing people when performance reviews come out. The people generally know its coming since they have been told a couple times how low they rank. It is keep you mouth shut and we will pay you to go away or you can fight and get let go for cause.
    Reply
  • Bikki
    This Jowi author's article is bad at many levels.

    1 - Salary increase for the CEO has nothing to do with layoff, it is about company performance and infact MS earns more in 2024.
    https://itassetmanagement.net/2024/08/06/microsoft-year-end-financial-results/
    2 - Companies do layoff and hiring every year, and MS actually has total emplyee increased in 2024 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032136/microsoft-employees-by-business-unit/
    3 - Tryng to pull 2 unrelated things and frame correlation is bad intention.
    Reply
  • time_lord
    Another example of corrupt corporate bonus culture at its worst.
    Reply
  • Bikki
    time_lord said:
    Another example of corrupt corporate bonus culture at its worst.
    check the comments brother, very helpful
    Reply
  • Lakitu_Runner
    hotaru251 said:
    Any company that has to lay off more than 100 people in a yr should NOT be able to get more pay.

    The top needs to start being punished for punishing the bottom.
    LOL....you have no idea, do you. In a 10,000 employee company, at least 100 people a year are caught stealing, hitting another employee, coming to work drunk or high, stop showing up to work suddenly etc. For MSFT, it is easy 1,000 a year around a globe.
    Reply