As Mark Zuckerberg's Meta announces stock options to its key leaders, company 'makes it clear': These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta …

Facebook-parent Meta is reportedly granting stock options to key leaders in an effort to retain talent. According to a CNBC report, the company has made multiple filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealing names of executives involved in the incentive plan.

These include CFO Susan Li, technology chief Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Christopher Cox and operating chief Javier Olivan. Notably, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not part of the stock option plan.The move comes as pressure grows on the social media giant to step up its efforts in AI. Rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have already launched popular AI models and features.

Meta sets terms for pay packages for top executives

The CNBC report quotes a Meta spokesperson who said “This is a big bet,” who further added: “These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders.

As with all stock options, there is only value if the share price meaningfully exceeds the exercise price, and in this case, it must be on an exceedingly aggressive 5-year timeline.”

Meta’s AI talent exit

Notably, Meta has invested heavily to close the gap with rivals in artificial general intelligence research. It has appointed former Scale AI chief Alexandr Wang and GitHub’s former CEO Nat Friedman to leadership positions.But in the past few months, Meta’s Superintelligence Labs (MSL) has seen high-level exits despite offering salaries in the hundreds of millions.

In February, Ruoming Pang, who joined Meta after leading foundation models at Apple Inc, left the company for OpenAI.The exit goes back to 2025 when Avi Verma and Ethan Knight, both previously associated with OpenAI, left MSL. Similarly, Bert Maher, who spent 12 years with Meta and helped build PyTorch, an open-source software widely used for training and testing AI model left the company last year. Other employees Chaya Nayak and Afroz Mohiuddin, who have worked at Meta for nine years and 14 years left the tech giant for OpenAI in 2025.The latest stock option as incentive is part of the company’s efforts to retain top executives.