Meta Offers Executives Crazy High Salaries with Massive Stock Bet! Market Cap Must Hit 9 Trillion Dollars to Cash In, More Aggressive Than Musk's Plan

Meta launches its first senior executive stock option plan since going public, with six core executives granted options with a maximum exercise price of $3,727, corresponding to a market value of over $9 trillion, five times the current approximately $1.5 trillion. The expiration date is only until 2031, half the time window of Elon Musk’s Tesla plan. According to reports compiled by Dongqu Dongqu.

(Background recap: Meta aggressively recruits AI talent, Zuckerberg claims “annual salary exceeds $100 million”; Sam Altman sarcastically: can’t buy the best employees)

(Additional background: Tesla officially cancels FSD “buyout system,” now only monthly $99 payments, Musk’s $1 trillion salary aims to reach tens of millions of subscribers)

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• Tiered vesting, minimum threshold to increase by 88%
• More aggressive than Musk’s plan
• AI talent war is burning money

On March 20, 2026, Meta officially granted stock options to six core executives, marking the first time since its 2012 IPO that the company adopted this compensation structure for senior management. The options expire on March 19, 2031. If the market cap does not surge dramatically within five years, these options will be forfeited.

According to CNBC, the six recipients are: CTO Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, COO Javier Olivan, CFO Susan Li, General Counsel C.J. Mahoney, and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick. CEO Zuckerberg is not on the list.

Tiered vesting, minimum threshold to increase by 88%

These options have multiple exercise prices, from low to high. The lowest exercise price is $1,116.08, about 88% higher than the stock price on the grant date, corresponding to a market value of approximately $2.82 trillion. The highest is $3,727.12, representing a market value exceeding $9 trillion.

Vesting is triggered if the stock price hits the exercise price before February 14, 2028. Once hit, the options vest to these executives.

After February 15, 2028, vesting occurs quarterly, with all options fully vested by August 15, 2030.

The six executives also received additional RSUs (restricted stock units), valued at about $170 million based on current stock prices.

Meta spokesperson characterized this plan as a “big gamble”:

Only when Meta achieves huge success and all shareholders benefit will these compensations be realized.

More aggressive than Musk’s plan

Many quickly compared this to Tesla, where Musk’s $1 trillion compensation plan last fall required him to grow Tesla’s market value from $1.2 trillion to $8.5 trillion over 10 years.

Meta’s plan demands nearly a 5-fold increase, but in only five years, with much greater pressure. Currently, Meta’s stock price is still nearly 90% below the lowest exercise threshold. To reach the highest threshold in five years, the market cap would need to jump from the current $1.5 trillion to over $9 trillion, surpassing the market values of the world’s top tech companies today.

AI talent war is burning money

This plan is set against the backdrop of Meta’s ongoing spending war for AI talent. According to SEC Form 4 filings, Meta’s cash expenditure related to employee stock awards in 2025 reached $42 billion, nearly consuming 96% of the company’s free cash flow.

Of the 40 million shares repurchased that year, 90% were to offset dilution from employee stock awards. In other words, large share buybacks are not really dividends to shareholders but are used to fill the dilution gap caused by employee awards.

The options granted to the six executives currently have almost no immediate value on paper; all are dependent on future growth. Meta aims to use this design to retain top executives without immediate cash outlay.