Major tech companies are spending more than ever to ensure the personal security of their CEOs, an increase driven partly by attacks on corporate executives and the higher political profile of the bosses during the Trump administration. Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Palantir all increased their protection budgets by more than 10% last year, a Financial Times analysis shows. But Meta easily leads the field, allocating more than $27 million in 2024 to protect Mark Zuckerberg and his family.
By comparison, in 2024, Nvidia spent $3.5 million in 2024 to keep CEO Jensen Huang safe, Amazon set aside $1.1 million for guarding Andy Jassy, and Apple budgeted $1.4 million to protect Tim Cook. Amazon also chips in $1.6 million for former CEO Jeff Bezos' security, per Fortune. Put another way, the total spending by Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks on the expense comes to about $7 million less than Meta spent to guard Zuckerberg at home and when traveling. Tesla reported spending $500,000 to protect Elon Musk after disclosing a $2.4 million tab in 2023, but he has his own protection.
Behind the increased spending is elevated fear. Protection services report they're receiving more requests for risk assessments as attacks on executives' homes rise. "I've never seen the threat or the concern higher than it is today," said James Hamilton, founder of Hamilton Security, a former FBI agent. "People are fixating on the leader of a company as the representation of all that is wrong with the world," he added.