AppLovin Corporation APP

Key data

What the paycheck buys

Nothing on that list can be missed. The salary is fixed, the shares arrive on dates already set, and the only condition on either is that Foroughi still works there. The three other named officers received the identical grant.

The board handed him 67,805 units in November 2024 and 20,236 in October 2025, a 70% cut in shares that still landed 16% higher in dollars, because the price on the two grant dates was roughly $159 and roughly $621. Grants are sized in money and paid in shares, so a rising price shrinks the count and leaves the dollar line nearly flat. Boards call that discipline, and it is, for as long as the price rises.

The one time there were bars

Each rung required the closing price to sit above it for 30 sessions in a row. Those units were the only performance instrument AppLovin has handed its chief executive, and they graded the share price, not revenue, not margin, not cash. Foroughi cleared all five rungs inside eighteen months of a five-year window. Compensation actually paid to him was $286,889,079 in 2023 and $385,953,293 in 2024. Nothing performance-based has reached him since, and shareholders vote on the design once every three years, next in 2029.

What he does next

There is no 2026 board target to hold against the street, because the board set none. Capacity answers itself: $4.0 billion of free cash last year against $3.6 billion of notes.

He repurchases stock, and already does. AppLovin retired $2.2 billion of Class A in 2025 and another $1.5 billion in the first half of 2026, 3.3 million shares, leaving $1.8 billion of authorization at June 30. The board added $3.2 billion to the program during 2025. Watch whether it adds again.

He holds headcount flat and lets margin carry the story. Adjusted profit margin ran 67.1%, 74.8%, 82.3%, then 84.2% in the first half of 2026, on 898 people producing $5.5 billion of revenue. Company-wide stock pay was $208.0 million in 2025, down from $357.4 million, the one move here that favors the owner. Watch headcount against revenue next year.

He removes whatever dilutes that picture. The Apps business went to Tripledot on June 30, 2025 for $400 million in cash and about 20% of the buyer's equity, and now sits in discontinued operations. Watch for a second line moved the same way.

Across the twelve months to September 16, 2026, insiders disposed of 1,113,842 shares under code S, a genuine disposal of owned stock, for $574.1 million. Foroughi accounts for 299,666 of those shares and $147.1 million at an average of $490.78, and none of his nine Forms 4 reports a 10b5-1 plan while all thirteen of the chief technology officer's do. His Class A holding fell from 2,610,290 to 2,324,954 while his 27.9 million Class B shares never moved.

Closing thoughts

AppLovin pays its chief executive with stock that arrives whether the business is good or not, which leaves the share price as the only scoreboard he plays to. The 2025 grant was 20,236 shares. He already owns 30.4 million and 61.6% of the vote. The alignment is real, and it is also the entire plan.