inc.com Here’s How Much It Costs to Protect Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Other Tech Titans Chris Morris 4–6 minutes
With an increasingly hostile sentiment towards tech companies and ongoing geopolitical instability, America’s tech giants are feeling especially protective when it comes to their CEOs and founders. The specter of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder two years ago and a rising ill-will towards outspoken billionaires is only amplifying that concern.
But protection doesn’t come cheap. Personal security services can cost several times what a company pays an executive in annual salary. That’s not stopping a growing number of corporations from shelling out for that, however.
The number of businesses offering personal security benefits for CEOs increased by 10 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, reports Goldman Sachs. And the number of S&P 500 companies offering personal security for their CEO in 2025 rose from 35 percent in 2024 to 54 percent, according to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
The cost of personal security for CEOs varies by industry, of course, but last year it averaged $656,000, with a median disclosed cost of $96,000. When it comes to high-profile tech executives, though, the numbers are a lot higher. Here’s what we know about how much it costs to protect the following high-profile executives.
Inc Logo
Top Tech
Weekly roundup of the latest in tech news Mark Zuckerberg
Meta is far and away the leader when it comes to security spending. The social media company, in a filing with the SEC, said it spent just under $8.5 million to provide personal security to Mark Zuckerberg at his residences and during personal travel. That was on top of a $14 million annual allowance for additional protection for him and his family and another $2.5 million for his use of private aircraft. That brings the total spend to roughly $25 million last year. Sundar Pichai
Alphabet, meanwhile, in its 2026 proxy statement, revealed it spends just over $8.8 million per year to protect CEO Sundar Pichai.
“Due to Sundar’s significant public profile, Alphabet provides him with security protection,” the company wrote. “In 2025, Sundar’s security arrangements included residential security and consultation fees, security monitoring services, car and driver services, and personal security during all travel. We believe these arrangements and costs are reasonable, appropriate, necessary and in the best interests of Alphabet and its shareholders.” Elon Musk
Elon Musk has his own security company (it’s called Foundation Security, The New York Times reported in 2024), which his various companies pay into. That makes it hard to determine just how much is being spent to protect the world’s richest man. Tesla, in April, revealed it had paid $4.8 million to the company in 2025 and had paid another $1.3 million through February of this year. It noted, though, that this only represented “a portion of the total cost of security services concerning Elon Musk.”
SpaceX is likely paying a portion of those expenses as well, but has not revealed how much in any of its SEC filings so far. Neuralink, The Boring Company, and other privately held/Musk-owned companies likely contribute also, but are not required to disclose how much. Jensen Huang
Nvidia, in its most recent annual report, acknowledged spending just shy of $4 million to protect Jensen Huang and his family “due to a bona fide business-oriented security concern.” Those arrangements include private aircraft, residential security, and more. Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Daniela Amodei
AI companies are also taking perceived (and real) threats seriously. In April, for instance, a man was arrested after lobbing a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Two days later, two suspects were arrested after a car stopped and appeared to fire a gun at the home.
OpenAI has not yet disclosed what it spends to protect Altman, though that information will likely become public next year, should the company move forward with its IPO plans. Anthropic, meanwhile, told would-be investors how much it spends to protect Dario Amodei in its S-1 filing, which went public earlier this year. The AI company said it spent just under $2.75 million to guard its CEO, as well as $97,055 for private aircraft. His sister, co-founder Daniela Amodei, received $1.3 million in personal protection.
Get Inc.'s free CPG newsletter, Packaged Goods, for the latest on the founders, investors, and trends reshaping consumer brands.
Someone should drive up the price by targeting the ones protecting them. I bet they dont care about the bodyguards at all, and they are just as vile for following orders to protect these people.
I’m surprised no one has, like, gotten a job as one of these ghoul’s drivers and then shot them in the head. I guess it’s not that easy, but that would be a neat movie.