[csomar]

Stock options are a part of the compensation especially for startups. But regular companies do it too. They do it because it is "free" money at least at the time of issue.

Apple new campus is both huge and the "flagship". It means Apple top employees will work from there. It has a 12,000 employee capacity. There will be hundreds or maybe thousands of top executives, top managers and high-grade engineers. I'm pretty sure the compensation for those is very high.

[bogomipz]

It is not "free money" at all, it is an asset like any other on the company's balance sheet.

For a publicly traded company such as Apple it wouldn't be options but RSUs and they are a percentage of you salary. And you still have to pay tax on them just like normal salary.

Just because the built a new large campus it doesn't mean that the majority of people there will be worth tens of millions of dollars. Very senior management sure, rank and file engineers - not so much.