Meta's 'Rapture' could send wealthy employees into early retirement

Meta's 'Rapture' could send wealthy employees into early retirement Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu via Getty Images There's a date looming at Meta that some employees are calling "The Rapture." And it could trigger an exodus of wealthy tech workers.February 15, 2027, marks the final payout from a particularly lucrative batch of company shares awarded to employees in 2023, when Meta's stock price was in the doldrums.Meta's stock has soared more than 400% since the beginning of 2023. That stock surge has turned those awards into a gold mine.Andre Nader, a former Meta employee who writes the FAANG FIRE newsletter, estimates senior engineers could see annual compensation from stock awards plunge more than 40%, after these payouts end.That's a serious pay cut. But there's a delicious twist. Some Meta employees have made so much money from this extraordinary stock rally that they may no longer need to work. Over the past four years, several of these equity grants have jumped in value as Meta stock rebounded. Some employees could be sitting on gains of $2 million or more.Once you've made money like that, golden handcuffs sometimes don't work as well. For some lucky Meta veterans, The Rapture could mean early retirement rather than another job.Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Alistair Barr is the driving force behind Business Insider's AI Insider franchise, including the AI Insider newsletter. Sign up here. Before that, he was Business Insider's Global Tech Editor and the Big Tech team leader at Bloomberg, following a reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, and MarketWatch. Alistair covers all things Big Tech, along with startups and venture capital. He writes analysis and columns about topics including AI, cloud computing, data centers, semiconductors, online search, e-commerce, EVs, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. AI Insider Meta