- By Supratik Das
- Fri, 23 May 2025 04:54 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Vaibhav Taneja, the Chief Financial Officer of Elon Musk-owned Tesla, has emerged as a well-known figure in international corporate circles after it came out that he received an incredible 139 million USD (around ₹1,160 crore) in 2024, making him the top Indian-origin executive of the year. Taneja's overall income outweighs the yearly pay of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. Based on filings and industry observers, Pichai took home 10.73 million USD while Nadella was paid 79.1 million USD in 2024.
Whereas Vaibhav Taneja's gross pay at Tesla was 400,000 USD (Rs 3.33 crore), a large chunk of his pay came from performance-linked stock options and equity awards. The equity compensation value was determined when the share price of Tesla was around $250, greatly augmenting the eventual payment.
From Delhi To Tesla: A Journey of Discipline and Excellence
Vaibhav Taneja, born and brought up in Delhi, graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University in 1999, then graduated with a Chartered Accountancy in 2000. In 2006, he graduated as a Certified Public Accountant in the United States. Taneja began his professional life at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), spending 17 years working in India and the US. His assurance and compliance expertise made him highly respected in the financial sector. In 2016, he made a critical career move by becoming part of SolarCity, a solar energy company later acquired by Tesla. This was the starting point of his ascension into Musk's ambitious electric car and clean energy empire.
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Following the acquisition of SolarCity, Taneja became a part of Tesla in 2017 as Assistant Corporate Controller. In 2018, he was promoted to Corporate Controller, followed by Chief Accounting Officer in 2019. In January 2021, he was made Director of Tesla India Motors and Energy Pvt Ltd, driving Tesla's India strategy. In August 2023, Taneja replaced Zach Kirkhorn as Tesla's Chief Financial Officer. His current role is managing Tesla's finance functions globally. Taneja's tale is unique in the technology world, typically ruled by engineers-turned-leaders like Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella. Unlike them, Taneja has a finance and commerce background, showing that number expertise can go just as far as code expertise in the industry.
Vaibhav Taneja is not the first Indian-origin CFO at Tesla. Deepak Ahuja occupied the position between 2017 and 2019 before joining Verily Life Sciences and subsequently Zipline. Apple recently also hired Kevan Parekh, another Indian-origin executive, as its CFO.