Tim Cook, whom President Trump named for Nvidia’s top job in a post at 15:29 UTC on 12 November, received total compensation of $74.3 million for Apple’s fiscal 2025, Apple’s 2026 proxy statement shows. Nvidia’s 2026 proxy reports $36.3 million for Jen-Hsun Huang for fiscal 2026, the year ended 25 January 2026. Cook’s figure was 2.0 times as large, by our arithmetic.
Cook’s Apple stake was 3,237,843 shares after the last transaction reported on a Form 4 filed on 5 October, worth about $1.15 billion at Apple’s price of $355.55 at 17:50 UTC, also by our arithmetic. Cook also sits on Nike’s board, and Nvidia’s governance policies say “no Board member who serves as a CEO or executive officer of a public company shall serve on more than two public company boards (including NVIDIA)”, unless a board committee approves otherwise.
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The key insight: As we read the filings, the name the President chose carries a reported pay figure of $74.3 million, 2.0 times the $36.3 million Nvidia reported for its former chief executive, and two existing public company board seats, the number at which Nvidia’s policies cap a director who is a public-company chief executive, unless its governance committee approves otherwise.
Apple’s Summary Compensation Table lists Cook, then chief executive, at a $3.0 million salary, $57.5 million in stock awards, $12.0 million of non-equity incentive pay and $1.8 million of other compensation for the fiscal year ended 27 September 2025. Stock awards were 77.4% of the total, by our arithmetic.
Nvidia’s table lists Jen-Hsun Huang, then president and chief executive, at a $1.5 million salary, $24.8 million in stock awards, $6.0 million of non-equity incentive pay and $4.0 million of other compensation, a total of $36.3 million, against $49.9 million a year earlier. Stock awards were 68.2% of the total. Colette Kress, then chief financial officer and now interim chief executive, is listed at $14.3 million. Cook’s total was 5.2 times the Kress figure, by our arithmetic.
Stock awards in both tables are grant-date accounting values, not pay realised, and the two fiscal years end four months apart. The comparison is of reported figures only. Our earlier explainer on Cook’s pay covers the history of the package.
Total compensation in each company’s latest Summary Compensation Table: Tim Cook for Apple’s fiscal 2025 (year to 27 September 2025, Apple 2026 proxy) and Jen-Hsun Huang and Colette Kress for Nvidia’s fiscal 2026 (year to 25 January 2026, Nvidia 2026 proxy). Stock awards are grant-date fair values, not pay realised. The 2.0 times multiple and the stock-award shares are our arithmetic.
The Pay Ratios
Apple says “the 2025 annual total compensation of our median compensated employee was $139,483, and the ratio of these amounts is 533 to 1”. Nvidia says “our Fiscal 2026 CEO to median employee pay ratio was 129:1”, with a median employee paid $282,050.
Nvidia’s median employee pay was 2.0 times Apple’s, by our arithmetic. Both proxies say their ratio may not be comparable with those of other companies, because each company picks its own method for finding the median employee.
Cook’s Stake and Current Role
Apple’s proxy put Cook’s holding at 3,280,295 shares on 2 January 2026, held in the name of Cook’s trust, less than 1% of the 14,697,926,000 shares outstanding. The count “excludes 836,667 RSUs held by Mr. Cook that are not scheduled to vest within 60 days after the Table Date”.
The Form 4 filed on 5 October, which gives Cook’s title as Executive Chair, reports 374,541 performance-based units settled on 1 October and 199,038 shares withheld for tax. It also reports sales of 191,753 shares on 2 October, by our arithmetic from four lines, under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on 28 May 2026. The holding after the last reported transaction was 3,237,843 shares.
At $355.55, the price on CNBC’s Apple quote page at 12:50 p.m. Eastern, that is about $1.15 billion. Unvested units are not included.
A Form 4 filed on 29 September reports two new awards of 65,969 restricted stock units each, one vesting in instalments to October 2030 and one performance-based award reported at target. Apple’s 8-K of 20 April says Cook became Executive Chair on 1 September 2026, as our piece on the President’s post sets out.
Cook’s Nike Seat and Nvidia’s Board Rules
Apple’s proxy lists one other current public company board for Cook: Nike. Nike’s 2026 proxy, filed on 15 July, lists Cook as a director since 2005, its Lead Independent Director and chair of its Compensation Committee. It says “In June 2025, the Board re-appointed Mr. Timothy Cook to serve as Lead Independent Director for a term of three years.” Nike reports $377,758 of director pay for Cook in its fiscal 2026 and a holding of 130,480 Class B shares.
Nvidia’s Corporate Governance Policies, effective 3 March 2025, say “The Board anticipates that the CEO will be nominated to serve on the Board.” They also say “Unless otherwise approved by the NCGC, no Board member shall serve on more than four public company boards (including NVIDIA)”, with the two-board limit for a director who is a CEO or executive officer of a public company. The NCGC is the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee.
By our count, Cook now sits on two public company boards, Apple and Nike, and an Nvidia seat would make three. The policies also say directors must “obtain the NCGC’s approval, before accepting an invitation to serve on the board of another company”, and they set a shareholding guideline for the chief executive of ten times annual base salary.
Responses So Far
Reuters reported that “Apple and Cook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.” Nvidia’s release on the 8-K, issued before the President’s post, says the board “is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates”. Our piece on prediction-market prices and our list of the six names reported so far cover the wider field.
The Structural Read
As we read the two proxies, Nvidia paid its chief executive less than Apple paid Cook while paying its median employee 2.0 times as much, by our arithmetic; together those put the two pay ratios, 533 to 1 and 129 to 1, far apart.
As we read Nvidia’s policies, the board seat question is a committee decision: the outside-board limits apply unless the NCGC approves otherwise, and the policies say the board anticipates that its chief executive will be nominated as a director.
Nvidia Corporate Governance Policies, effective 3 March 2025
“Board members must notify the NCGC and the General Counsel, and obtain the NCGC’s approval, before accepting an invitation to serve on the board of another company.”
Three Implications
FOR NVIDIA’S BOARD Its own policies tie any chief executive’s outside seats to committee approval and set a shareholding guideline of ten times base salary.
FOR APPLE HOLDERS Cook remains Apple’s Executive Chair, with 3,237,843 shares after the last transaction reported on 5 October and new unit awards reported on 29 September.
FOR OUR COVERAGE We report the filed numbers next to the President’s post; Reuters reported that Apple and Cook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The framework describes the governance layer this way: “No longer a passive layer; an active priced variable.”
As we read it, who leads Nvidia, and on what pay and board terms, now sits in that layer, set by filings and committee rules. The framework predates the 8-K and does not discuss it.
CEO total compensation as a multiple of the median employee’s, from the pay-ratio sections of Apple’s 2026 proxy (fiscal 2025, Tim Cook) and Nvidia’s 2026 proxy (fiscal 2026, Jen-Hsun Huang). Each company chooses its own method for finding the median employee, and both say ratios may not be comparable across companies.
What Is Not Established
The President’s post is not a nomination, and Nvidia’s filing and release name no candidate. The pay figures come from proxies filed before the 8-K and describe past fiscal years. Stock awards are accounting values at grant, and the value of Cook’s stake moves with Apple’s share price. We compare reported figures only; we make no judgement on what any person should be paid or appointed to.
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The filings put numbers on the name the President chose. Cook’s last reported Apple pay was $74.3 million, 2.0 times the $36.3 million Nvidia reported for its former chief executive, and Cook’s Apple shares were worth about $1.15 billion at today’s price. Cook already holds two public company board seats, and Nvidia’s own rules cap a director who is a public-company chief executive at two boards, including Nvidia, unless its governance committee approves otherwise.
A note on sourcing. Pay, pay-ratio and ownership figures come from Apple’s and Nvidia’s 2026 proxy statements and Tim Cook’s Form 4 filings on SEC EDGAR; board facts come from Apple’s and Nike’s 2026 proxies and Nvidia’s Corporate Governance Policies, effective 3 March 2025. The Apple share price is CNBC’s last trade at 12:50 p.m. Eastern on 12 November 2026. The Reuters line is quoted as republished by The Korea Times. Multiples, shares, the sale total and the stake value are our arithmetic. Stock awards are grant-date accounting values, not pay realised.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
