^{Photo: Business Standard}

Meta is making one of its boldest internal moves yet to accelerate its artificial intelligence ambitions, offering lucrative stock option packages to top executives as it races to close the gap with leading AI players. The initiative reflects mounting pressure on the company to deliver meaningful breakthroughs in a sector that is rapidly reshaping the global tech landscape.

The incentive plan, revealed through recent regulatory filings, targets some of Meta’s most influential leaders, including CFO Susan Li, CTO Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, and COO Javier Olivan. Notably absent is CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose personal wealth already heavily ties his financial future to the company’s performance.

At the core of this compensation strategy is a high-risk, high-reward structure. The stock options come with steep performance thresholds and a compressed five-year window, signaling urgency at the highest levels of the organization. Executives will only benefit if Meta achieves substantial stock price appreciation, aligning leadership incentives directly with long-term shareholder value creation.

The numbers illustrate just how ambitious these targets are. For the first tranche of options to vest, Meta’s share price must climb to $1,116.08, representing an 88% increase from recent levels and implying a market valuation of approximately $2.8 trillion. Subsequent milestones escalate sharply, with the highest tier requiring a staggering $3,727.12 per share—translating into a valuation exceeding $9 trillion. For context, the current global leader by market capitalization, Nvidia, stands at around $4.3 trillion.

This aggressive compensation framework comes at a time when Meta’s stock has underperformed relative to key peers. Over the past year, shares have declined roughly 4%, lagging behind competitors such as Alphabet, which has surged more than 70% on the back of strong adoption of its Gemini AI ecosystem. Even Microsoft, despite a modest decline, continues to maintain a stronger foothold in enterprise AI through its strategic partnerships and product integrations.

Internally, Meta has been undergoing a significant transformation to reposition itself in the AI race. The company plans to invest as much as $135 billion in capital expenditures this year, a substantial portion of which is earmarked for AI infrastructure, research, and talent acquisition. This level of spending underscores the scale of Meta’s commitment and the competitive intensity of the market.

A major turning point came after the underwhelming reception of its Llama 4 models, which failed to generate the expected enthusiasm among developers and enterprise users. In response, Meta initiated a sweeping overhaul of its AI division. A key move in this restructuring was a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, alongside the appointment of its founder, Alexandr Wang, as Meta’s chief AI officer. He now leads the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs, a unit tasked with driving the company’s next generation of AI innovation.

Looking ahead, Meta is reportedly developing a new frontier AI model, internally codenamed “Avocado,” aimed at competing directly with cutting-edge systems from rivals. This effort represents a critical test of whether Meta can translate its vast resources and talent into market-leading AI products.

Ultimately, Meta’s latest compensation strategy is more than just a retention tool—it is a clear signal of intent. By tying executive rewards to extraordinary performance milestones, the company is effectively betting on its ability to not only catch up in the AI race but potentially redefine its position at the top of the tech hierarchy.