Want to know how much cash Tim Cook has raked in since taking over as Apple CEO in 2011, during which time he has almost quadrupled the company’s share price? It’s perhaps both more and less than you might expect.
According to a new report, combining Cook’s salary (which was a shade over $3 million last year) and his lucrative stock options and other awards, Apple’s CEO has earned approximately $701 million during his time as head honcho.
Of this, $650,382,235 comes from stock options. Even after his recent sales of stock following the vesting of recent restricted stock options, Cook has in excess of 800,000 shares of Apple. At the current share price, that’s worth more than $195 million.
A whole lot of cash
For the overwhelming majority of us, $701 million is a frankly unimaginable amount of money, of course.
Still, it might be a bit less than some would expect, compared to what a few of Cook’s contemporaries have made. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, has netted stock options worth almost $5.8 billion. Business Insider claims that Zuckerberg is the only CEO “who has realized more value in the same time period.”
Cook won’t have to worry about not being able to pay his phone bill, but he’s certainly not at the top of the heap when it comes to overall wealth either.
SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, for instance, is valued at up to $2.6 billion. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has an estimated $143.1 billion fortune, which by our reckoning isn’t a world away from the GDP of Quatar. Heck, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is valued at $2.9 billion, and received a $638 million award for taking Snap public.
The big difference between Cook and some of these other names, of course, is that he is not a founder of Apple. The likes of Jeff Bezos and Alphabet founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have not been compensated with equity over the years due to their stock holdings from early on.
Still, it’s hard to think of too many companies in human history to have experienced the kind of success Apple has. Having recently hit the $1 trillion valuation, and with excitement growing for this year’s iPhone refresh, you’d be foolish to bet against the Cupertino company.
For our money (which isn’t nearly as much as the other names on this list), Cook is worth every cent.
