Meet Indian-origin man, chief executive at one of biggest tech company, salary higher than Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, it is Rs...

The world’s top tech moguls have been living luxurious lifestyles, with earnings that are some of the highest in the world. However, there is one man whose salary package is not only shocking but really special as it is more than that of some biggest tech leaders on earth- Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai. Tesla's Chief Financial Officer, Vaibhav Taneja has become one of the highest paid executives in the world and the highest earning CFO in the corporate field in 2024. His salary is a whopping USD 139 million (Rs 1,157 crore). This staggering amount is due to stock options and equity awards given to him after he was promoted which increased his base salary of USD 400,000 to levels which are far more than some of the highest CEOs.  

Vaibhav Tanejas’s staggering pay not only surpasses that of Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai but also breaks the earlier pay record of CFO worth USD 86 million which was at the time of Nikola Tesla’s CFO in 2020 before the hydrogen-truck maker filed for bankruptcy this year. 

Vaibhav Taneja’s career 

Vaibhav Taneja completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University in 1999. He then studied at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in 2000 after which he graduated as a CA and began his career. However, in 2006, Vaibhav became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the US. He simultaneously worked in both India and abroad as he spent nearly 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the big four accounting firms in the world, based in London, UK, working in both India and the US. 

Vaibhav Taneja’s yearly promotion in Tesla 

In 2016, Taneja switched to SolarCity, a solar energy company which Tesla later acquired, which changed his professional course. This was his first stint with the electric vehicle leader after which he continued to work with Tesla. He then continued to be promoted on a yearly basis in Tesla as the next year he got promoted to Assistant Corporate Controller. Again, the next year, in 2018, he became Corporate Controller and the very next year, in 2019, he was appointed Chief Accounting Officer and then moved to the role of Chief Financial Officer in August 2023, succeeding Zach Kirkhorn.