March 24 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms is increasing compensation for top executives, including its first-ever offer of stock options, as it tries to fend off competition in the artificial intelligence race and incentivize leaders to stay with the company for several years. The pay boost comes as Meta, like other major tech firms, races to gain an edge in AI, intensifying a battle for senior talent. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing the company to compete more forcefully in generative AI. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, President Dina Powell McCormick and Chief Legal Officer Curtis Mahoney are eligible for the stock options, regulatory filings late on Tuesday showed. All executives except McCormick and Mahoney, who joined Meta in January, will also receive an increase in restricted stock awards, worth a total $170 million at last close, which vest quarterly. Chief Accounting Officer Aaron Anderson will only receive restricted stock.The company has offered huge pay packages, some worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, to court top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team. Stock awards are typically issued to reward employees, retain top talent and align their interests with the company's long-term success. Meta executives would need the company's stock to rise at least 88.2% to $1,116.08 to unlock the lowest-priced tranche of stock options. On Tuesday, Meta shares closed at $592.92. A more than six-fold jump would be needed to unlock the most aggressive tranche, requiring the company's stock price to rise as high as $3,727.12, according to the filings.
Meta must meet the price targets by February 14, 2028, for the options to vest. If unsuccessful, Meta executives' unvested options would become available to them in instalments through August 15, 2030. The options will expire in March 2031 if they are unexercised. A Meta spokesperson said the pay packages represent a "big bet" and that they "will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders."
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey and Chris Thomas in Mexico City, Katie Paul in New York, Shubham Kalia, Shivani Tanna and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Thomas Derpinghaus)
