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Malaysian Hock Tan beat out Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to be top paid CEO in America

  • Broadcom boss Hock Tan is the highest-earning CEO in the US, per a Wall Street Journal analysis
  • But Tan has to fulfil certain criteria to get his full US$162 million pay package

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Broadcom CEO Hock Tan speaks during an event to announce the company is moving its global headquarters to the United States, in the Oval Office of the White House in November 2017. Photo: AP

America’s highest-paid CEO isn’t Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, or Meta Platforms’ Mark Zuckerberg – it’s Broadcom’s Hock Tan, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) found in an analysis published this week.

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The Malaysian-born Tan was awarded US$162 million in compensation last year, but it comes with a catch: he’ll only receive the full amount if his company’s stock hits a certain level by 2025, the WSJ said.

Broadcom said that Tan’s pay was also dependent on him remaining in his role for another five years, and that he won’t get any more equity or cash bonuses until that period has passed.

The semiconductor company’s shares are up 27 per cent this year and 106 per cent over the past 12 months, lifting its total market capitalisation to US$655 billion.

Tan has been Broadcom’s CEO since 2006, and previously topped the WSJ’s list in 2017, when he was awarded US$103 million.

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Two other CEOs made nine-figure salaries in 2023, per the analysis: Palo Alto Networks’ Nikesh Arora and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman.

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