Meta executives could earn nearly $1 billion each if they hit goals in pursuit of a $9 trillion valuation

The moonshot compensation packages awarded to executives like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Axon CEO Rick Smith, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu in recent years have followed a predictable script: They promise astronomical pay if the leader of a company hits audacious financial targets. 

The idea behind moonshot pay is that conventional salaries and bonuses don’t motivate the kind of tectonic risk-taking and visionary leadership that turns good companies into generational ones. So boards offer executives the chance to get extraordinarily rich—but only if they deliver extraordinarily rare results.

This week Meta put a twist on the typical playbook: it extended moonshot-level stock grants to a broader swath of senior leaders that did not include CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

The move may usher in a new wave of compensation packages for non-CEO C-Suite executives that are just as speculative as other investments in this stage of the AI race.  

Inside Meta’s ‘big bet’

In SEC filings late Tuesday, Meta disclosed the new stock option program for its top executives that promises massive payouts if the tech giant achieves the ambitious goal of growing its market capitalization from roughly $1.5 trillion to $9 trillion by 2031. If Meta hits that mark, Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, Chief Product........

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