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How Much it Costs to Protect the CEOs of Big Tech
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In July 2024, shortly after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that he’d been separately targeted in two attempts as well. Both men were arrested with guns roughly 20 minutes away from Tesla’s Texas HQ.
Given that these Big Tech head honchos are running companies whose revenues rival the GDPs of small countries, it’s no surprise that they could be attracting unwanted attention. And that their security costs must be astronomical.
But just how astronomical exactly?
This graphic visualizes the annual security costs incurred by Big Tech companies to protect their CEOs in 2023. Data is sourced from an analysis done by Fortune magazine, published earlier this year.
So, Who’s Spending the Most to Protect Their Boss?
Amongst Big Tech, Meta paid the most ($23 million) to protect CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom it called “synonymous with the company,” in their SEC filings.
Company management reasoned that negativity associated with the brand could have a spillover effect on Zuckerberg himself.
| Rank | CEO | Company | Security Costs in 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Zuckerberg | Meta | $23.4M |
| 2 | Sundar Pichai | Alphabet | $6.8M |
| 3 | Elon Musk | Tesla | $2.4M |
| 4 | Jensen Huang | Nvidia | $2.2M |
| 5 | Tim Cook | Apple | $0.8M |
Far behind, Alphabet dropped nearly $7 million in 2023 to keep Sundar Pichai safe.
And at third place, Tesla’s costs to protect its boss came in at $2.4 million. Presumably, this bill might be significantly larger in 2024 after the recent assassination attempts, and Musk’s appointment to the new Trump cabinet.
Meanwhile, a key figure in the AI revolution and leather-jacket aficionado to boot, Jensen Huang cost Nvidia around $2 million in personal security expenditure.
Finally, soft-spoken Tim Cook only required about $800,00 worth of security spending in 2023.
In case these figures sound unreal, Fortune found that round-the-clock protection with only two bodyguards costs at least $1 million a year.
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Not only is protecting Jensen Huang (relatively) inexpensive for Nvidia, having him at the helm is good for morale as well. Check out America’s Most Popular CEOs to see where he ranks.
