Apple CEO Tim Cook hits billionaire status
- Apple chief executive Tim Cook has joined the billionaire's club, according to analysis by Bloomberg.
- Cook's net worth reflects a mix of the salary he's earned at Apple, the number of shares he holds in the firm, and the proceeds from his share sales, per Bloomberg.
- Apple's market capitalization is hovering around $2 trillion.
- Unlike several other big tech CEOs, Cook is not a founder-CEO, so his net worth is considerably lower than some of his peers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has hit billionaire status, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.
His $1 billion-plus net worth reflects a mix of the money he's earned at Apple through his salary, the number of shares he holds in the company, and the estimated proceeds from his share sales, per Bloomberg.
Cook took the top job at Apple in August 2011, taking over from longtime CEO and founder Steve Jobs.
He was a longtime Jobs lieutenant, signing onto the company in 1998 as SVP of worldwide operations, striking critical deals with manufacturers to help Apple become a hardware powerhouse. As a relatively unknown exec, industry watchers questioned whether he could fill Jobs' shoes, but Apple has approached a near $2 trillion market cap on his watch.
Cook currently holds 847,969 Apple shares, which at the current stock price are worth more than $380 million. In 2019, Cook's compensation package included a $3 million base salary and around $7.6 million in incentive pay, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the US.
An SEC filing from January indicates he sold off 6,880 Apple shares at the end of December, which would have netted him around $2 million.
As an executive who rose up Apple's ranks, Cook is less wealthy than other famous big tech CEOs.
The three wealthiest people in the world are all tech founders: Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $186 billion; Microsoft founder Bill Gates at $121 billion; and Facebook founder-CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has a net worth just shy of $100 billion.
Other notable execs-turned-CEOs of major tech companies are Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, neither of whom appear on Bloomberg's billionaire index.