Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Why do you find it surprising that it takes hundreds of millions of dollars to retain someone qualified to run such a company? Plus, the position of CEO is arguable the place where Apple is the weakest and companies spend to shore up their weaknesses. In contrast, they don't need to bump pay by 5% to get the best engineers and designers. It's a good use of the money that Apple has and it is amortized over a a decade.