Depends on the person. Northwest arkansas is a beautiful place with tons of outdoor activities and the ability to live like a king on a major company CTO salary. I'd rather live there than Seattle or San Francisco.
That link is for the CTO of Walmart, but TFA is about the CTO of Sam's Club.
It looks like they're one rung down the ladder so I'm sure they're doing just fine even in California, but they're probably making quite a bit less than $15M/year.
https://www1.salary.com/Suresh-Kumar-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Opti...