Quick answer
Adam Foroughi's salary as AppLovin's CEO is $400,000 a year — and it has not moved in years. According to AppLovin's 2026 proxy statement, his total reported compensation for fiscal 2025 was $12,969,001: the $400,000 salary, $12,558,866 in stock awards, and $10,135 in other compensation. For a man worth $11.6 billion, the paycheck is decorative — roughly one-thousandth of his fortune.
The number that made headlines was 2023, when a mega equity grant pushed his total pay to $83.4 million, making him the 8th highest-paid CEO in the United States that year. Since then, his reported pay has fallen back to the low teens of millions — while his real wealth, the ~11% AppLovin stake, swung by tens of billions.
Pay breakdown: what the proxy actually says
AppLovin's summary compensation table is refreshingly simple. Foroughi's pay has three components, and only one of them matters:
| Component | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $400,000 | $400,000 | $400,000 |
| Stock awards | $82,949,922 | $10,788,454 | $12,558,866 |
| Other compensation | $11,756 | $13,644 | $10,135 |
| Cash bonus | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total | $83,361,678 | $11,202,098 | $12,969,001 |
Two things stand out. First, the salary line is frozen at $400,000 — a standard founder-CEO figure, neither lavish nor symbolic. Second, there is no cash bonus at all, in any year. AppLovin's board pays its CEO in equity, full stop — a structure that aligns him with shareholders by default, since his ~11% stake already does the same job.
The $83.4 million year: 2023 explained
In 2023, Foroughi's total compensation hit $83,361,678, landing him on the list of the ten highest-paid CEOs in America. The mechanics: a $82.9 million stock award granted as AppLovin's AXON 2.0 AI engine was beginning its run — the kind of front-loaded mega-grant boards use to lock in founder-CEOs ahead of a value-creation cycle.
It worked, at least on paper: the stock gained roughly 519% in 2024, and by December 2025 Foroughi's fortune peaked at $27.3 billion. The $83.4 million grant, enormous as a salary figure, ended up being about 0.3% of the wealth the same bet created for him personally. Executive pay critics sometimes miss this about founder-CEOs: the headline pay package is the small number; the ownership is the real one.
How he actually gets cash: barely selling
Here is the striking part of the Foroughi pay story: he hardly ever sells. SEC insider-trading disclosures show Foroughi selling roughly $1.9 million of AppLovin stock on March 12, 2026 — 1,680 shares at $452.41 ($760,049) and 2,440 shares at $453.27 ($1,105,979). For a billionaire, that is pocket change, likely tax-related rather than a real liquidation.
Compare that to his bootstrapped founding story: a man who borrowed $280 million in 2018 rather than dilute his ownership is not about to start dumping shares. His business empire is one company, and his cash flow is the salary plus whatever trickles out of tiny scheduled sales. The $11.6 billion is almost entirely unrealized — a stock quote, not a bank balance.
Insider sales: the $1.9M that wasn't
The full record of Foroughi's 2026 selling fits in a single SEC Form 4. On March 12, 2026, he reported two transactions: 1,680 shares at $452.41 for $760,049, and 2,440 shares at $453.27 for $1,105,979 — a combined ~$1.87 million. At the time, AppLovin traded in the mid-$400s, already well off its 2025 highs, and Foroughi's remaining position was worth well over ten billion dollars.
| Date | Shares sold | Price | Proceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 12, 2026 | 1,680 | $452.41 | $760,049 |
| March 12, 2026 | 2,440 | $453.27 | $1,105,979 |
| Total | 4,120 | ~$1.87M |
Why would a billionaire sell $1.87 million? The likeliest answer is taxes: small scheduled sales tied to equity vesting, used to cover withholding obligations rather than to reduce exposure. Four thousand shares out of a position measured in the tens of millions changes nothing about his ownership — it is roughly 0.015% of his net worth. For comparison, Jeff Bezos has sold more than $50 billion of Amazon stock since 2002, and even routine founder sales run into the hundreds of millions. Foroughi's Form 4 reads like a man who forgot he was supposed to sell.
That restraint is the through-line of his entire financial life. He borrowed $280 million in 2018 rather than dilute, he took KKR's $400 million on terms that preserved his stake, and as a public-company CEO he has never mounted a meaningful secondary sale. The $1.9 million is not a liquidation — it is a rounding error that proves the rule: Foroughi does not sell.
How his pay compares to other ad-tech CEOs
Against industry peers, Foroughi's cash pay is modest but his equity is extreme. The Trade Desk's Jeff Green received an $834 million pay package in 2022 — one of the largest in corporate history — though, like Foroughi, most of it was stock options. Meta and Alphabet CEOs take token $1 salaries with massive equity positions. Foroughi sits in the middle of the founder-CEO spectrum: a real $400,000 salary (not $1), steady eight-figure equity grants, and — the differentiator — an 11% personal stake that dwarfs every pay package.
| CEO | Base salary | Notable pay figure | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Foroughi (AppLovin) | $400,000 | $83.4M total (2023); $13.0M (2025) | ~11% (~$11.6B) |
| Jeff Green (The Trade Desk) | Undisclosed | $834M package (2022, mostly options) | Single-digit % (see head-to-head comparison) |
| Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) | $1 | ~$27.8M (mostly security, 2024) | ~13% of Meta |
The honest summary: CEO pay tables measure the wrong thing for founder-CEOs. Foroughi's $13 million in 2025 compensation is less than 0.2% of his net worth. The pay that matters is the stake — and that is where the entire $11.6 billion lives.
The philosophy: borrow, don't dilute; hold, don't sell
Foroughi's approach to money has been consistent since the beginning: keep the ownership. He bootstrapped AppLovin after VCs rejected him, borrowed $280 million in 2018 instead of selling shares, and has now gone years as a public-company CEO with essentially no meaningful insider selling. His compensation structure mirrors the philosophy — salary for living, equity for aligning, and the stake itself for wealth.
It is worth noting what he does not do with the money: no headline philanthropy pledges, no vanity projects, no fleet of yachts in the press. In May 2026 he returned to UC Berkeley to tell graduates that "your degree is a ticket to the arena, it is not a trophy" — a man whose entire fortune is a single bet on his own company, preaching output over credentials. In a rare April 2026 20VC interview, he laid out the operating philosophy behind the numbers: run absurdly lean (that $10 million of EBITDA per employee), hire only A-players, and never let kindness slow down hard decisions. Whether the market rewards that conviction again will decide if the $400,000 salary ever looks small next to a $27.3 billion fortune — or a $50 billion one.
Frequently asked questions
What is Adam Foroughi's salary in 2026?
Adam Foroughi's base salary as AppLovin's CEO is $400,000 a year, according to the company's 2026 proxy statement covering fiscal 2025. That is roughly 3% of his total reported compensation — the rest comes from stock awards.
How much did Adam Foroughi make in 2025?
Foroughi's total reported compensation for 2025 was $12,969,001: a $400,000 salary, $12,558,866 in stock awards, and $10,135 in other compensation. It was down sharply from his $83.4 million payday in 2023, when a large equity grant made him the 8th highest-paid CEO in the US.
Why was Adam Foroughi paid $83.4 million in 2023?
The 2023 figure was almost entirely a one-time equity grant: $82,949,922 in stock awards on top of his $400,000 salary. Such mega-grants are common for founder-CEOs around major value-creation moments — in this case, the AXON 2.0 AI boom that sent AppLovin's stock soaring.
Does Adam Foroughi get a cash bonus?
No meaningful one. AppLovin's proxy shows zero cash bonuses for Foroughi across 2023, 2024, and 2025 — his compensation is salary plus stock awards, with no annual incentive payout. His wealth comes from his ~11% ownership stake, not from yearly pay.
Has Adam Foroughi sold AppLovin stock?
Barely. SEC filings show Foroughi sold only about $1.9 million worth of AppLovin stock on March 12, 2026 — 1,680 shares at $452.41 and 2,440 shares at $453.27 — a rounding error against his multi-billion-dollar stake. Unlike many founders, he has not cashed out in any meaningful way.
Is Adam Foroughi married?
Yes. Forbes lists his marital status as married, and he has children — references to family trusts appear in AppLovin's ownership disclosures. He is famously private and keeps his family out of the media.
How old is Adam Foroughi in 2026?
Adam Foroughi was born in 1980 in Tehran, Iran, and is 46 years old in 2026. His family fled to the United States during the Iran-Iraq War; he grew up in Southern California and graduated from UC Berkeley in 2001.
Where does Adam Foroughi live?
Forbes lists his residence as Truckee, California, near Lake Tahoe. He keeps a deliberately low profile despite running AppLovin from its Palo Alto headquarters.
Sources
- AppLovin — Investor RelationsAppLovin
- Wikipedia — Adam ForoughiWikipedia