Top Highest Paid Woman CEO in 2024
According to the latest public proxy filings and Forbes compensation surveys, the highest paid woman CEO in 2024 is Lisa Su, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with total annual compensation exceeding $60 million, driven by a large equity award tied to AMD's stock performance and long-term incentive targets. Her package reflects AMD's strong market performance in the AI and data center chip sector, with her base salary, bonus, and stock awards combining to make her the top earner among women leading major public companies.
Lisa Su's pay package in 2024 includes a base salary of around $1.5 million, a performance cash bonus, and the majority of her compensation from stock awards and options that vest based on AMD's relative total shareholder return and revenue milestones. Her compensation structure is similar to other tech CEOs, with a heavy emphasis on equity, and it aligns her incentives with long-term company growth in semiconductors and AI accelerators.
How Lisa Su's Pay Compares to Other Female CEOs
Lisa Su's total compensation in 2024 places her well above other prominent female CEOs such as Mary Barra of General Motors, who earned roughly $22 million, and Safra Catz of Oracle, whose reported pay was in the low tens of millions, making Su the clear leader in the ranking of highest paid women CEOs by total annual compensation. The gap is largely driven by the size and performance of AMD's stock-based awards, which have grown substantially as AMD's market capitalization has expanded.
In the broader context of the highest paid women CEOs, Su's package also exceeds that of many male counterparts at similarly sized companies, highlighting how equity-heavy compensation at high-growth tech firms can produce outsized total pay for leaders who deliver strong shareholder returns. Her compensation is disclosed in AMD's annual proxy statement filed with the SEC, which provides detailed breakdowns of salary, bonus, stock awards, option exercises, and other compensation elements.
What Makes a Woman CEO the Highest Paid in 2024
Several factors contribute to a woman CEO becoming the highest paid in a given year, including the company's market capitalization, stock price appreciation, the structure of long-term incentive plans, and the CEO's role in driving revenue growth and strategic direction. For Lisa Su, AMD's leadership in AI GPUs, data center processors, and its strong stock performance over the past few years have directly increased the value of her equity awards, pushing her total compensation to the top of the list.
Compensation committees at major companies typically set CEO pay based on relative total shareholder return, revenue and earnings targets, and peer benchmarking, and in 2024, AMD's results against these metrics resulted in a large payout for Su. The trend of highest paid women CEOs increasingly coming from the technology and semiconductor sectors reflects the outsized financial performance of these industries, with companies like AMD, Tesla, and Nvidia generating significant shareholder returns that flow through to executive equity compensation.
Key Sources for CEO Pay Data
Investors and researchers can verify the highest paid women CEO rankings using SEC filings such as AMD's DEF 14A proxy statement, which details executive compensation, and independent compensation surveys from Forbes and Equilar that aggregate and compare CEO pay across S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies. These sources provide the most reliable, fact-based data on CEO compensation, including base salary, bonuses, stock awards, and total pay figures for the latest fiscal year.
For context on Lisa Su's career and AMD's business performance, the company's official investor relations page and SEC filings offer detailed financial results, strategic updates, and governance information. Additional background on Su's leadership and AMD's role in the AI hardware market can be found