Most Indian-origin tech leaders in the US had left for foreign shores for a higher degree right after college, but it turns out that working in India for a while can also lead one to the very top of the US corporate world.
Indian-origin Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja was paid $139.5 million in 2024. This is more than the compensation packages of Google and Microsoft CEOs — Sundar Pichai had earned $10.73 million in 2024, while Mirosoft CEO Satya Nadella had netted $79 million.
Taneja has benefitted from a Tesla’s rising stock price. He had been given Tesla shares near $250 when he’d joined in 2017. Tesla stock has risen substantially since then, causing his overall compensation to zoom ahead of fellow Indian tech CEOs including Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella.
Vaibhav Taneja, now 47, was born in India. He completed his BCom from Delhi University in 1999, and earned the Chartered Accountant designation in 2000 from the Institute of of Chartered Accountants in India. After graduating, Taneja went on to work with accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in New Delhi as an Assistant Manager. He was promoted to senior manager, and eventually went on to work at PricewaterhouseCooper’s offices in San Jose, USA. It was at that point he entered Elon Musk’s orbit — he was appointed the Vice President of Accounting Operations at Solar City, Musk’s solar energy initiative. SolarCity was merged into Tesla in 2016, and Taneja became the Assistant Corporate Controller at Tesla. In 2018, he was promoted to Tesla’s Corporate Controller, and in 2019 was appointed its Chief Accounting Officer.