The Rich Compensation for Being the C.E.O.

Beating Wall Street’s profit expectations is hard enough. Chief executives of major U.S. companies must also deal with issues like tariffs, climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion, with the Trump administration constantly changing the rules of the game.

Being C.E.O. is a tough gig, no question. But the pay? It’s fabulous.

And it’s so much better than what the rank-and-file will ever get. These days, it’s particularly lucrative to be the C.E.O. of a company with government security ties, corporate executive compensation filings show.

Take Alex Karp. He’s the chief executive of Palantir Technologies, a data analysis and technology firm that has been in the news for helping the Trump administration collect and compile personal information on millions of Americans. Palantir also works for the U.S. military, police forces and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as many other corporations.

Palantir disclosed that Mr. Karp received $6.8 billion in “compensation actually paid” in 2024, a figure bolstered by Palantir’s soaring share price, which last year swelled the value of the stock and options awarded to him.

That windfall made Mr. Karp the highest-paid chief executive of a publicly traded company in the United States last year, according to a survey done for The New York Times by the executive compensation research firm Equilar of all corporate filings through May.

“Compensation actually paid” is one of two major ways of accounting for chief executive pay required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. It emphasizes the annual changes in the value of an executive’s current and potential stock holdings and reveals the staggering gains of executives, often company founders, who have been granted substantial stakes in their enterprises.