Tech — Hardware

SES AI Executive Compensation (FY25)

Name: SES AI (SES) executive compensation
Creator: Velarion
License: https://intel.velarion.ai/terms

SES · Executive and director compensation, fiscal 2022 to 2025

Chief executive, fiscal 2025

◇

Qichao Hu

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Data as of November 6, 2026Latest filing (DEF 14A): October 27, 2026

6 filings cited on this page

Method: intel.velarion.ai/methodology

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Published by Velarion Company Intelligence

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134 figures on this page: 131 cited to the filing that reported them, 3 calculated from figures it prints. See the citations

Frequently asked questions

Answers drawn from the data on this page.

Who is SES AI's chief executive and what were they paid?

Qichao Hu was paid $1,921,424 in total compensation as Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director for fiscal 2025. Hu's total moved 53.1% lower from the $4,099,946 reported for fiscal 2024.

What was SES AI's say-on-pay result?

Shareholders supported the say-on-pay proposal with 99.8% of votes cast for or against in favor at the meeting held October 1, 2025 for fiscal 2024.

Which companies are in SES AI's peer group?

The disclosed peer group includes ACM Research, Inc., Ambarella, Inc., Canoo Inc., CEVA, Inc. and Chargepoint Holdings, Inc., among others.

Executive compensation

Every element reported for each named executive officer, by fiscal year.

Fiscal 2022

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Qichao Hu Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Hong Gan Chief Science Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	—	◇
Yongkyu Son Chief Technology Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	—	◇
Jing Nealis Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	—	◇
Joanne Ban Former Chief Legal Officer Departed during or after this year	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Rohit Makharia Chief Operating Officer	◇	—	—	—	◇	—	—	◇

Fiscal 2023

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Qichao Hu Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Jing Nealis Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Hong Gan Chief Science Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇

Fiscal 2024

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Qichao Hu Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Jing Nealis Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Hong Gan Chief Science Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇

Fiscal 2025

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Qichao Hu Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director	◇	—	◇	—	—	—	◇	◇
Jing Nealis Former Chief Financial Officer Departed during or after this year	◇	—	◇	—	—	—	◇	◇
Kang Xu Chief Technology Officer	◇	—	◇	—	—	—	◇	◇

A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero. A negative change in pension value is shown but, as the company reports it, not included in the total.

Equity awards granted

Individual awards as disclosed: type, date, unit counts at each level, and grant date value.

Fiscal 2025

Officer	Award	Grant date	Threshold units	Target units	Units granted	Maximum units	Exercise price	Grant date fair value
Jing Nealis	RSU	◇	—	—	◇	—	—	◇
Kang Xu	RSU	◇	—	—	◇	—	—	◇
Qichao Hu	RSU	◇	—	—	◇	—	—	◇

Fiscal 2022, 2024 are included in the PDF.

A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero. Threshold, target and maximum apply only to performance awards and are never shown for time-based or option awards.

Outstanding awards

Awards still held at fiscal year end.

As disclosed at fiscal 2025 year end

Officer	Award	Unvested units	Market value of unvested units	Exercise price	Expires
Qichao Hu	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
Jing Nealis	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
Kang Xu	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—
	RSU	◇	◇	—	—

A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero.

Director compensation

What each non-employee director was paid.

Fiscal 2025

Director	Fees earned in cash	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Andrew Boyd	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Dr. Jiong Ma	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Eric Luo	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Michael Noonen	◇	—	—	—	—	—	◇
Dr. Jang Wook Choi	◇	—	—	—	—	—	◇

Earlier years are included in the PDF.

A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero.

Director fee schedule

The standing retainers and premiums the board pays, as published.

Board cash retainer	◇
Board equity retainer	◇
Total board retainer	◇
Board chair premium	◇
Lead independent director premium	◇
Audit committee chair	◇
Audit committee member	◇
Compensation committee chair	◇
Compensation committee member	◇
Nominating and governance chair	◇
Nominating and governance member	◇

Equity is delivered as restricted stock units.

Disclosed peer group

The companies this board named as its compensation comparison group. The list is disclosure; the comparison is analysis.

Fiscal 2022

ACM Research, Inc. ACMR
Ambarella, Inc. AMBA
Canoo Inc. symbol not shown
CEVA, Inc. CEVA
Chargepoint Holdings, Inc. CHPT
Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc. EOSE
Fisker Inc. symbol not shown
FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL
Hylion Holdings Corp. symbol not shown
Lordstown Motors Corp symbol not shown
Luminar Technologies, Inc. LAZR
Nikola Corporation symbol not shown
nLight, Inc. LASR
Plug Power Inc. PLUG
Quantumscape Corporation QS
Rambus, Inc. RMBS
Romeo Power, Inc. symbol not shown
SiTime Corporation SITM
Stem, Inc. STEM
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. symbol not shown
Workhouse Group Inc. symbol not shown

Say-on-pay history

Shareholder support for the compensation program, by year.

Year	Meeting	Support	Votes for	Votes against	Abstentions
2024	October 1, 2025	=	◇	◇	◇
2023	June 7, 2024	=	◇	◇	◇
2022	June 8, 2023	=	◇	◇	◇

Ask our research desk — $99, 24h, every figure cited to its filing.

Sample answer — “What is the CEO’s total compensation?”

- Qichao Hu (Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director), FY2025 total compensation $1,921,424 (base salary $530,000) [exec_comp, SEC accession 0001819142-26-000060, filed 2026-10-27]

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What this page does not include

Everything above is a fact SES AI disclosed, and it is free. Everything below is our analysis of those facts, and it is not.

Peer benchmarking

Where SES AI sits against its disclosed peers — percentile position by role and by pay element, and the ranking behind it. The disclosed peer group is free; comparisons across it are part of the Velarion platform.

Executive Compensation Report — $500

Written compensation analysis

A read of the pay program as designed and as paid: incentive structure, goal rigor, the alignment between the committee's stated philosophy and what the numbers show.

Executive Compensation Report — $500

Board and governance analysis

Committee composition, independence, director pay positioning, and the governance provisions read together rather than listed.

Board Governance Report — $500

Realizable pay

What the awards above are actually worth today against what they were valued at on grant, and what the gap says about the pay-for-performance link.

Velarion Intelligence

Adviser switching and vote outcomes

Two datasets covering compensation-adviser changes and what followed a contested vote. Both are part of the Velarion platform.

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Multiple companies at once

Cross-company views, cohort screens, and data export across the industries we cover. This page is one company; the platform is all of them.

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Citations

Every figure on this page is cited to the document that reported it. Select any figure to see its citation.

134 figures on this page: 131 cited to the filing that reported them, 3 calculated from figures it prints.

131 cited to the filing

3 calculated from the filing

Documents cited

DEF 14A, filed October 27, 2026
0001819142-26-000060
Director Compensation
8-K, filed October 3, 2025
0001819142-25-000062
Proposal 3 - Approval of the compensation of the Company ’ s named executive officers in a non-binding, advisory vote The stockholders approved, in a non-binding, advisory vote, the compensation paid
DEF 14A, filed September 9, 2025
0001819142-25-000059
8-K, filed June 10, 2024
0001819142-24-000027
Proposal 3 - Approval of the compensation of the Company ’ s named executive officers in a non-binding, advisory vote The stockholders approved, in a non-binding, advisory vote, the compensation paid
8-K, filed June 9, 2023
0001819142-23-000060
Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
DEF 14A, filed April 21, 2023
0001558370-23-006373

Cite this data

This page is free to cite. Attribution we ask for:

Velarion, “SES AI executive compensation, FY2022–FY2025.” https://intel.velarion.ai/comp/SES (accessed 2026).

Short form: data: Velarion

The paid brief for SES AI

Positioning against its disclosed peers, the governance read, incentive design, and the CD&A alignment analysis; the full peer table; a committee-ready PDF.

$500 for the Executive Compensation Report. Both reports for $900.

Get the executive brief Get the board briefNo account needed.

6 filings cited on this page

Method: intel.velarion.ai/methodology

A report that fails to generate is refunded in full

Published by Velarion Company Intelligence

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Tech — Hardware rankings

Chief executive pay — Tech — Hardware CEO pay ratio — Tech — Hardware Say-on-pay support — Tech — Hardware

Peers SES AI discloses

The companies named in SES's own disclosed peer group.

ACM Research, Inc.Ambarella, Inc.CEVA, Inc.Chargepoint Holdings, Inc.Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc.FuelCell Energy, Inc.Luminar Technologies, Inc.nLight, Inc.Plug Power Inc.Quantumscape Corporation Rambus, Inc.SiTime Corporation Stem, Inc.

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Say-on-Pay Vote CEO Pay Ratio Median Employee Compensation All companies

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Cite this data

APA

Velarion Company Intelligence. (2026). Velarion database: executive and board compensation data (Version 2026Q3) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22283854

BibTeX

@misc{velarionData2026,
  author = {{Velarion Company Intelligence}},
  title = {Velarion database: executive and board compensation data},
  year = {2026},
  version = {2026Q3},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22283854},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22283854}
}

More on SES AI

Frequently asked questions

Executive compensation

Equity awards granted

Outstanding awards

Director compensation

Director fee schedule

Disclosed peer group

Say-on-pay history

What this page does not include

Citations

Documents cited

The paid brief for SES AI

Tech — Hardware rankings

Peers SES AI discloses

Terms on this page