Apple CEO Tim Cook Now the Eighth Highest-Paid Executive in the U.S.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has fallen to eighth place on a list of the highest-paid CEOs and executives in the United States last year despite earning more than the previous year, according to Bloomberg.

Tim Cook Feature Yellow
Cook was paid $265 million in 2020, mainly comprising stock awards and a bonus as in previous years, making him the eighth highest-paid executive in the United States. Last year, Cook was paid compensation of $133.7 million, but ranked second after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was paid $595.3 million.

Cook has overseen Apple's rise to become the most profitable company in the world this year with revenue of $274.515 billion and profit of $57.411 billion, according to the Fortune Global 500 rankings.

In 2020, Cook was surpassed in terms of pay by the COO of Oak Street Health, the CEO of Palantir Technologies, the CEO of Opendoor Technologies, and the Co-CEOs of GoodRX Holdings. Elon Musk again overwhelmingly topped the list with compensation amounting to $6.658 billion.

Last month, it was alleged that Musk demanded to become the CEO of Apple as part of early discussions around a potential Apple acquisition of Tesla, though Musk denies this.

Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre O'Brien and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kate Adams also made the list in 93rd and 96th place, with pay of $45 million each. This makes O'Brien and Adams the fourth and fifth-highest paid women executives in the United States.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...

Top Rated Comments

AppleFan91 Avatar
51 months ago
Not attacking Cook, I think he’s a great leader.
That being said, something about his pay DOUBLING, yet he still falls down to 8th while the world is going through a pandemic just seems….wrong.

Seems like the top level guys, once again, saw their wealth increase exponentially while the rest of us struggled during the pandemic.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pafoofnik Avatar
51 months ago
Hmmmm... Now I think I know why I'm paying three grand for a laptop that'll be obsolete in two years.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
beanbaguk Avatar
51 months ago
And to top it off, he's managed it by "saving the world" by not including cables or chargers with our new phones! Genius!
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hugodrax Avatar
51 months ago
Whats interesting is CEOs in the 1950s never got paid so much of a difference to employees and you had a big thriving middle class, you did not need two earners to own a home and raise a family.

interesting the stark difference today where Gen-Z really have a **** future.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
51 months ago
Well deserved Mr. Cook. I still think he’s under paid based on what he has done at Apple so far.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
51 months ago

Hmmmm... Now I think I know why I'm paying three grand for a laptop that'll be obsolete in two years.
Why don't you just buy an Apple laptop rather than whatever is going to be obsolete that quickly? ;)
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)