Why Meta Executives Could Be In Line for a US$1bn payout

Meta has announced plans to offer a moonshot compensation package for its board of executives.

Packages like these have been previously awarded to CEOs like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Axon CEO Rick Smith in recent years in order to incentivise those at the C-suite level with immense stock grants, rather than conventional salaries or bonuses, to achieve ambitious financial targets.

The key difference with Meta’s moonshot package is that the list of awardees does not include Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta is betting that the move will usher in a new wave of compensation packages for non-CEO C-suite executives during the tech industry’s race for AI.

Meta has since faced criticism over this pursuit of increased market valuation. In the same week of the package announcement, the business faced legal scrutiny over its alleged misleading of users over privacy and its workforce cuts that have seen hundreds of workers laid off.

Achieving growth targets

In the US Securities and Exchange Commission filings on 24 March, Meta disclosed the new stock option programme for its top executives that promises large payouts if the company achieves its growth targets.

Ambitiously, it plans to grow the company’s market capitalisation from roughly US$1.5tn to US$9tn by 2031.

If Meta hits that target, multiple executives including CTO Andrew Bosworth, COO Javiar Olivan and CFO Susan Li could unlock options worth up to US$625.6m each, according to a report by compensation research firm Equilar.

That sum could inflate to as much as US$921m when accounting for the restricted stock units Meta has awarded to several executives.

Describing the financial risks of the programme, a Meta spokesperson says: “These pay packages will not be realised unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders.”

Mirroring these concerns, the same report by Equilar found that moonshot packages rarely deliver on the outside returns they promise to shareholders.

The report states that in 2018, dozens of companies, including KKR, Rivian Automotive, Roblox and Robinhood Markets, promised US$100m pay packages to their executives in hopes the "huge" payoffs would influence outsize returns, following Tesla’s awarding of billions of dollars in stock options to Elon Musk.

Four CEOs, including KKR’s Co-CEOs, have since met their targets for awards, recently valued at a combined US$2.6bn. CEOs who are still trying to deliver on returns have earned, on average, only a quarter of the total.

Andrew Gordon, Senior Director of Research Services at Equilar, said: “A few of [the packages] worked out, a few didn’t really have very good guardrails and earned way too quickly. You don’t want to set goals too easy or too difficult – it’s really hard to predict.”

A shareholder lottery ticket

Supporters of moonshot packages like Meta’s say the prospect of giant paydays drive talented CEOs to get results, typically over five- to 10-year periods.

However, some argue companies can exploit these packages to overpay or set easily attainable targets, particularly in cases where CEOs already hold significant ownership stakes and control over their companies.

Critiquing the use of moonshot packages, Eric Hoffmann, Vice President and Chief Data Officer at consulting firm Farient Advisors, says: “From a firm perspective, it is our view that these plans are generally not in the best interests of the organisations, the stakeholders and shareholders in these companies. 

“To me, a lot of these feel like a lottery ticket, a winner-take-all.” 

Considering the influence of Elon Musk’s moonshot package on the tech industry in 2018 (as well as Elon’s more recent US$1tn plan in November 2025), financial analysts predict other companies will mimic Meta’s latest move.

Robin Ferracone, founder and CEO of Farient Advisors, discusses the potential of other companies implementing large pay packages, saying: “With technology companies, there’s kind of a lemmings mentality. They really follow one another, and so I’m expecting to see more of these.”