Six Meta executives are set to get nearly a billion dollars each in bonuses as the company ambitiously moves forward with its artificial intelligence (AI) goal.
Despite laying off 700 employees on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new stock option plan for his top executives that could see them get up to $921 million each.
Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan have the highest chances of the massive payout, according to Equilar, a compensation research firm.
The lowest bonus would be awarded to the company's Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, whose stock option would be around $161 million, the research firm estimated.
Dina Powell McCormick, the president and vice chairman, and Chief Legal Officer Chris Mahoney, would also be eligible to receive stock options.
It would mark the first time since 2012 that Meta has given its executives stock options, The New York Times reported.
'This is a big bet,' a Meta spokesperson told The Times. 'These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders.'
The executives would be allowed to buy extra stock options if the company hits growth targets, The Times reported.
Mark Zuckerberg laid off 700 employees on Wednesday, while simultaneously announcing a new stock option plan for six executives including Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth (pictured) that could see them get up to an almost $1 billion payout each
Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan (left and right) will have the chance to gain a $921 million stock option
One of the targets includes making Meta a $9 trillion company by 2031, a feat that would include boosting the company's market value six-fold.
Zuckerberg has made it clear he's on a mission to create a 'superintelligence' and the company is predicted to spend around $115 billion this year, with much of its budget going toward AI.
The billionaire, who has a net worth of $204.2 billion, has said that AI will 'dramatically change the way that we work' starting this year.
He also admitted the change will see layoffs happening.
'We're starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person,' he told investors in January, according to The Times.
Zuckerberg spent billions last year on a team of AI specialists to join the ranks of the company's 78,000 employees.
Hundreds were cut this week from the Reality Labs team, which worked on virtual reality and metaverse products, amounting to roughly ten to fifteen percent of the team.
'Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they're in the best position to achieve their goals,' a spokesperson told The Times.
The change comes after Meta and Google were ordered to pay $3 million to a woman whose social media addiction ruined her life.
The first-of-its-kind lawsuit saw the plaintiff, a 20-year-old referred to only as Kaley, accuse the tech giants of hooking her to their platforms.
After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days, California jurors decided the tech giants were negligent in the design or operation of their platforms.
The jury also decided each company's negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to Kaley, who alleged her use of social media as a child addicted her to the technology and exacerbated her mental health struggles.
Jurors also found that both companies knew or should have known their services posed a danger to minors, that they failed to adequately warn users of that danger and that a reasonable platform operator would have done so.
Jurors assigned Meta 70 percent of the responsibility for Kaley's harm - a $2.1 million share of the compensatory award - and YouTube the remaining 30 percent, or $900,000.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Meta for comment.