Anthropic CEO was paid $18 million last year as compensation for his services, the company’s IPO papers revealed, as per a Reuters report.
This amount puts him in the middle tier of top executives at some of the major technology firms when it comes to compensation.
While Amodei’s salary puts him above the CEOs of and , he is still behind the leaders at Oracle and Nvidia.
In the same vein with other tech founders, Amodei’s major earnings are not through his salary but through stock and other sorts of compensation. The yearly salary he receives contributes to a fraction of his wealth.
The salaries of both Dario Amodei, and his sister Daniela Amodei, who is the president of Anthropic, doubled in July 2026 to $1.4 million. With the bulk of their pay packages made up by Stock and option awards, Daniela received a total of $16.4 million in 2025, Reuters reported.
This year, the sibling duo was granted the promise of more equity by the board in the form of restricted stock units, which promise a future payout if they meet certain conditions, some of which are tied to their continued association with the company while some are tied to its IPO.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Krishna Rao, was paid $720,250 last year. Rao was given the options to buy around 1.4 million shares when he was hired in 2024. In 2025, he exercised options worth around $385,285.
How much are other AI leaders earning?
The rise in compensation to US CEOs has far outpaced the hikes average workers are getting, a dynamic that critics think can be exacerbated as AI adoption continues to increase.
The S&P 500’s average CEO compensation rose 21% to $22.8 million in 2025 without the inclusion of Elon Musk and his restricted stock plan worth $158 billion, Reuters reported citing AFL-CIO.
At the high-end of the CEO compensation spectrum is Oracle co-CEO Clayton Magouyrk, who took home $627.5 million, while the lowest was Musk’s $54,080 received as the CEO of SpaceX before it went public.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took home $10.9 million in 2025, which includes $8.8 million for his personal security owing to “Sundar’s significant public profile”. When it comes to “compensation actually paid,” Pichai earned $213.9 million in 2025.
Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy took home $2.1 million in 2025 as per a disclosure, but on an an “actually paid” basis, Jassy received $13.2 million.
With Reuters inputs