In the fiscal year 2024, the compensation of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella soared by 63% to $79.1 million, largely due to his stock awards, as per a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

What Happened: Nadella's stock awards increased to approximately $71 million from $39 million in the previous year. The company's market value exceeded $3 trillion during the same period.

Despite a rise in the stock awards, Nadella's cash incentive of $5.2 million was less than the $10.7 million he was eligible for, as he requested a reduction following multiple cybersecurity breaches reported during the fiscal year.

"Nadella agreed that the Company's performance was extremely strong, but reflecting on his personal commitment to security and his role as the CEO, asked the Board to consider departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his cash incentive to reflect his personal accountability for the focus and speed required for the changes that today's cybersecurity threat landscape showed were necessary," the filing said.

Microsoft is considered a frontrunner in the race for market dominance in the rollout of generative artificial intelligence, backed by its investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

Among other high-profile tech CEOs, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook earned $63.2 million in 2023, while AI-chip giant NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang received a payout of $34.2 million in fiscal 2024.

Why It Matters: Nadella's compensation surge comes at a time when Microsoft is making significant strides in the AI domain. The company is enabling businesses to create their own autonomous AI agents, a move that is expected to revolutionize enterprise functions.

However, this development has not been without criticism. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently slammed Microsoft for its rebranding of the Copilot AI tool to "agents," citing it as a sign of "panic mode" due to Microsoft's lack of data and security models.

Price Action: Microsoft stock closed at $424.73 on Thursday, reflecting a year-to-date gain of 14.52%. In after-hours trading, the stock dipped 0.068%. Over the past year, Microsoft's stock has risen by 24.67%, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.