Protecting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei cost the company $2.75 million in 2025, more than four times his $654,167 base salary. The figure, disclosed in Anthropic’s IPO filing, represents roughly 15% of his $17.96 million total reported compensation, which includes stock and option awards.
The security program covered personal protection, home surveillance, and private cars with drivers. Anthropic also reported $97,055 in security-related private-aircraft travel for Amodei, which the company said his security program required.
Daniela Amodei, Dario’s sister and Anthropic’s President and cofounder, received $1.29 million in similar protections. The board formally determined in 2025 that enhanced security for both executives and their families was necessary, citing security studies, increased media attention, and what the filing described as “bona fide business-related, heightened security concerns.”
Documented Threats Behind the Decision
The filing points to specific incidents, including a threat that Amodei was “in his sights.”
Heightened public attention on AI has increased physical and informational-security risks, the filing states, including threats to employee safety and attempts to obtain confidential information through physical or digital means. Publicly reported incidents include an alleged threat against a top Anthropic executive at its San Francisco office, online threats involving employees’ children, and a customer’s alleged threat to bring a pistol to the office.
In a separate incident, a Claude user allegedly told police he had purchased an AR-15 rifle and had Amodei “in his sights.” The company reported the conversation to police and banned the account; the user later said he had been joking.
The broader sector has faced similar pressure. A Texas man was charged in connection with an alleged Molotov-cocktail attack at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home and subsequent threats against OpenAI’s headquarters; he pleaded not guilty. Because Anthropic did not disclose executive-security figures for 2024, whether 2025 represented a sharp increase remains unknown.
Where Amodei’s Costs Land Among Peers
His figure sits in the middle of a wide disclosed range across major technology CEOs.
Amodei’s spending falls well below Zuckerberg’s but above several other prominent technology executives. Reported 2025 security-related costs for major technology CEOs, based on corporate disclosures as reported by Fortune:
| CEO | Security Costs |
|---|---|
| Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) | approximately $22.5 million, or $25.1 million including private-aircraft costs |
| Sundar Pichai (Alphabet) | $8.8 million |
| Elon Musk (Tesla) | approximately $4.8 million paid to a security company Musk owns; Tesla noted this covers only part of his total costs |
| Jensen Huang (Nvidia) | nearly $4 million in fiscal year 2026 |
| Dario Amodei (Anthropic) | $2.75 million, plus $97,055 in security-related air travel |
| Andy Jassy (Amazon) | approximately $1.7 million for security and business travel combined |
| Sam Altman (OpenAI) | not publicly disclosed |
The figures are not directly comparable. They mix personal security, family allowances, aircraft costs, business travel, and different fiscal and calendar years.
Security Costs Well Above the Software-Sector Median
Sector norms offer some context, though individual risk profile matters more than industry benchmarks.
According to ISS-Corporate, the median disclosed CEO-security cost among S&P 500 companies was $93,818 in 2025; among software and services companies specifically, it was $401,336. Amodei’s $2.75 million figure is nearly seven times that software-and-services median. ISS-Corporate notes that individual public profile and demonstrable risk exposure are more relevant measures of proportionality than sector benchmarks alone.
The broader trend points toward security becoming a standard executive benefit in technology. ISS-Corporate found that 28.3% of S&P 500 companies reported providing CEO-security benefits in 2025, up from 13.4% in 2021. A separate Equilar study found a 73.5% increase in the prevalence of executive-security benefits across the tech sector between 2020 and 2024.
Anthropic’s program expanded in 2026 to include CFO Krishna Rao, for whom the company commissioned an independent risk assessment. The cost was not disclosed, and the disclosures make Anthropic’s filings among the most detailed yet published by an AI company on executive security spending.
