Alphabet Offers Pichai $692 Mn Pay Package Tied to Stock Performance
The board said the incentives reflect confidence in Pichai’s leadership as Waymo and Wing scale efforts in autonomous driving and drone delivery.
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Google has significantly increased CEO Sundar Pichai’s potential compensation, with the package now worth up to $692 million over the next three years, according to a Financial Times report.
Most of the payout is tied to performance. The plan includes $126 million in performance stock units (PSUs) linked to Alphabet’s total shareholder return relative to the S&P 100. If the company exceeds performance targets, the value could double to $252 million, but it could also yield nothing if benchmarks are missed.
In addition, Pichai will receive $84 million in restricted stock vesting monthly over three years, along with an annual salary of $2 million.
The package also introduces up to $350 million in stock incentives tied to Alphabet’s autonomous ventures. This includes $130 million in Waymo stock and $45 million in Wing Aviation stock, both of which could pay out up to 200% of their target value depending on performance.
Alphabet’s board said the incentives reflect confidence in Pichai’s leadership as Waymo and Wing scale efforts in autonomous driving and drone delivery.
Since taking over as Google CEO in 2015, Pichai has overseen a sharp rise in the company’s market value, from $535 billion to about $3.6 trillion, briefly touching $4 trillion in January.
The Indian-born executive, who joined Google in 2004 and previously led the development of Chrome and Android, recently sold 32,500 Class C shares worth about $9.8 million. Reports suggest Pichai and his wife currently hold 1.67 million Google shares worth about $498 million.
For comparison, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, earned $96.5 million in fiscal 2025, while Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, earned $74.3 million.
The compensation sparked debate online, with some users questioning the performance conditions tied to the massive payout, particularly as Alphabet races to strengthen its position in the AI era.
One user wrote, “Even in most American tech companies, there is almost always an Indian making the executive-level decision.”
Another commented, “The real question is what the performance targets look like. $692M tied to AI catching up to OpenAI is a very different bet than $692M for maintaining search dominance. The number means nothing without the conditions.”
