UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination has underlined the need for personal security for prominent leaders of companies. Given the revenue riding on major tech companies, it only makes sense to spend a considerable amount of money to protect these CEOs. 

According to data firm Equilar, expenditure on security in S&P 500 companies have increased by a large margin in the recent past with the average amount spent on security double from $47,643 in 2021 to $98.069 in 2023. The money spent on personal security detail for top execs had also grown during the same time period from 23.5 percent to 27.5 percent. 

Meta, for instance is the biggest spender in the S&P 500, and spent a massive $24.4 million on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s security. While security provided at his home and during travels cost $9.4 million, there was also a pre-tax allowance of $14 million for additional personal security costs for him and his family. The company also spent on protecting few other execs including $903,139 on COO Javier Olivan. 

Google, was next on the list with $6.8 million spent on protecting CEO Sundar Pichai. Third is Amazon which spent $2.7 million in total last year on the security services of Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, Douglas Herrington and CEO of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky. Of this, $1.6 million was spent on Bezos and $986,164 was set aside for current CEO Jassy.

AI chipmaking company, Nvidia spent around $2.5 million on CEO Jensen Huang. 

Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk racked up $2.4 million in security expenses in 2023. Musk has become increasingly worried about his safety and is also now appointed to the Trump cabinet. 

Apple spent approximately $820,000 last year on CEO Tim Cook’s personal security services. Lastly, Microsoft spent $58,291 on CEO Satya Nadella’s security and personal travel.