By Meghan Bobrowsky
Meta Platforms is seeking to incentivize its top executives to grow the company at an extremely aggressive pace with a new stock option program that could pay some of them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Under the program, executives would only realize the full value of their options if the company hits a market capitalization of more than $9 trillion by 2031 -- an increase of 500% from its current $1.5 trillion, according to the company and new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The program includes Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Operation Officer Javier Olivan, Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg isn't part of the program, the company confirmed.
"This is a big bet. These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders," a Meta spokesman said. "As with all stock options, there is only value if the share price meaningfully exceeds the exercise price, and in this case, it must be on an exceedingly aggressive 5-year timeline."
Meta is also increasing RSU grants for some executive officers, the company said.
The AI race has caused Meta's stock-based compensation costs to balloon. The company embarked on an expensive campaign of recruiting top AI researchers last summer, offering individual pay packages that in some cases could be worth more than $1 billion.
Cash costs tied directly to employee stock awards consumed 96% of Meta's free cash flow, or $42 billion, in 2025, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The company reported $18.4 billion of cash withholding taxes related to vested shares and spent an estimated $23.6 billion on share buybacks to offset dilution. Of the 40 million shares Meta repurchased last year, 90% were necessary to counter the dilution from employee stock awards.
The idea of using outsize financial incentives to ensure leaders' loyalty in a competitive landscape transformed by AI was at the heart of the pitch made by Tesla's board of directors to the company's shareholders last fall. Shareholders ended up approving a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion over 10 years.
To unlock the richest rewards, Musk must grow Tesla from its current market capitalization of $1.2 trillion to $8.5 trillion. Meta's plan requires a nearly equivalent level of growth in half the amount of time.
Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at meghan.bobrowsky@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 00:11 ET (04:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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