Security spending rises after attacks on CEOs

The attack last weekend on the home of OpenAI’s Sam Altman is another reminder that the politicisation of business is making life increasingly dangerous for bosses – and of why companies, at least in the US, are spending far more on protecting them.

Last year saw a surge in such security costs after the murder in December 2024 of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, outside the New York Hilton, where he was to speak at a conference.

According to a recent report by DealBook and Equilar, an executive data firm, 38% of S&P 500 companies paid for security for their executives in 2025, up from 24% a year earlier. The median US company increased its spending on this by 136% year-on-year.

The $3.5m paid by American Express to protect its boss is the highest cost reported so far for 2025, but will surely be dwarfed by Meta’s spending to keep Mark Zuckerberg safe; in 2024, that was $27m, up from $10m in 2022.

The US data was revealed as part of company disclosures of their CEO’s compensation package. Perhaps including “the muscle” in pay figures was a performative act, making the boss feel (even more) important.

Now, with many chief executives receiving death threats routinely in the US (and increasingly here, it is whispered), security spending seems less a perk than a necessity, and the right debate to have is how much should be spent.

At least American companies disclose this information. British (and European) companies do not, although a handful include “use of a driver” (often a euphemism for security) within a bundle of assorted other costs.

So it is anyone’s guess whether corporate Britain is spending enough on protecting its CEOs.

Photograph by Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images