According to reports from Oregonlive, Intel lured the VMware CEO, Patrick Gelsinger to the Blue side with a massive $116 million package which is nearly twice as much Bob Swan was paid in 2019 and thrice as much as his annual salary of $42 million at VMware.
Intel is going to pay Gelsinger $1.25 million as his base salary, with another $1.75 million as the hiring bonus along with an annual bonus of $3.4 million based on performance. Furthermore, the company announced that if he decides to buy $10 million in Intel stock, it’d give him the same number of restricted stocks.
That’s not all though. Gelsinger is going to get another $100 million in restricted stock if Intel’s performance and share price shows a positive uptick during his reign. At the end of the day, much of his salary will depend upon Intel’s performance in the coming years, and he could get much less or notably more than the promised pay if all goes according to plan. The restricted stock vests over a period of five years, contingent on Gelsinger remaining with Intel.
In comparison, Intel’s present CEO, Bob Swan was paid $67 million in 2019, with a supposedly higher figure in 2020 on account of his promotion bonuses. The average salary of an Intel employee in 2019 was $96,300, 695 times less than that of the company CEO.
For Gelsinger, this is essentially a return to a company he spent most of his career at. Before joining VMware in 2012, he was Intel’s CTO and one of its top figures after working nearly 30 years for the Santa Clara-based chipmaker.
