Being rich and famous comes with perks such as private jets, luxury homes and expensive vacations. But there’s another side to being in the spotlight that many people don’t think about: the need for constant safety. And when you’re one of the most famous billionaires in the world, that protection can come at an eye-watering cost.
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When it comes to the safety of billionaires, one name stands above the rest: Mark Zuckerberg. Fortune reported that Meta (NASDAQ:META) spent $23.4 million in 2023 to protect its CEO and founder. To put that in perspective, that’s almost ten times more than what Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) paid to protect Elon Musk in the same year. If you thought Musk’s high-profile lifestyle came with a hefty security bill, Zuckerberg’s costs are on a whole different level.
Of the $23.4 million, $9.4 million was spent directly on security services for Zuckerberg and another $14 million was paid as an annual stipend to cover other security-related costs for him and his family. The company pays for everything from 24-hour bodyguards to advanced home surveillance systems. Meta claims that because the CEO is so closely tied to the company, it is crucial to keep him safe because if anything were to happen to Zuckerberg it would have a direct impact on Meta’s reputation and business.
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By comparison, Elon Musk’s security costs seem modest. Tesla reportedly spent about $2.4 million in 2023 to keep Musk safe, plus another $500,000 by early 2024. That’s still a lot of money, but nowhere near Zuckerberg’s level. Musk’s controversial opinions and habit of being in the public eye are certainly a target on his back, but even he doesn’t need the kind of protective detail Zuckerberg needs.
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But Zuckerberg and Musk aren’t the only tech giants in need of protection. In 2023, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Google’s parent company, spent $6.8 million on security for its CEO, Sundar Pichai. Even Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) Jensen Huang, the CEO whose chips power some of the world’s most advanced technologies, had a $2.2 million security bill. For Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, security costs this year were about $820,000.
While these numbers seem quite high, they accurately reflect the reality of being a well-known CEO in the modern technology industry. These leaders are actually in danger of being kidnapped, extorted or having their lives threatened. Being at the top comes at a high cost, but for these companies, protecting their leaders is critical anyway.
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This article It Costs 10 Times More to Protect This Billionaire Than It Costs to Protect Elon Musk originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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