Google CEO Sundar Pichai's salary was just raised to $2 million, but he's set up to make at least $240 million more if he sticks around and the company hits its targets

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai's salary was just raised to $2 million, but he's set up to make at least $240 million more if he sticks around and the company hits its targets
Sundar Pichai
  • Sundar Pichai has been CEO of Google since 2015, and he was recently named CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet.
  • A December 17 SEC filing revealed that Pichai is getting a pay raise for his new dual roles.
  • His salary will increase to $2 million, plus millions more in stock, some of which will by tied to the company's performance.
  • He'll get $150 million in restricted stock that vests over time, and can now earn at least $90 million in additional stock if the company hits certain performance targets.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sundar Pichai is in for a huge payday. The CEO of Google and Alphabet will now receive a cash salary of $2 million per year, according to a December 17 SEC filing noticed by CNBC reporter Steve Kopack.

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If he sticks around and the company hits certain performance targets, he'll unlock at least $150 million more.

That's because in addition to the boosted salary, Pichai now has a compensation package that includes stock awards worth far more than $2 million, some tied to the company's performance and staying in the role. Alphabet says that Pichai will be eligible for the first tranche of stock awards depending on how the company does against the S&P 100 index over the 2020-2021 period. He gets the second block depending on how it does against the same metric over the period of 2020-2022. Notably, while Alphabet says the "target value" of each tranche is $45 million, the filing says that depending on performance, he could get paid out 0% of those awards - or as much as 200%, meaning his actual payday could be quite a bit higher if Alphabet especially out-performs. This appears to be the first time Alphabet added performance-based stock to executive payouts, but the practice is common at other major tech companies like Uber, Microsoft, and Apple.

Pichai will also get another $120 million in restricted stock units that will vest over time, along with another $30 million "transitional award" in stock that vests in 2020. These earnings are not tied to Alphabet's performance, so Pichai will get them no matter what as long as he remains at the company.

Even with this salary increase, Pichai won't make the list of highest paid tech CEOs in the US, which is topped by Oracle's Mark Hurd at $108.3 million. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made a base salary of $2.3 million, slightly higher than Pichai's, but that was only a small part of his total 2019 compensation of $42.9 million. He was paid another $10.8 million in cash, plus $29.6 million in stock awards based on Microsoft's performance under his lead.

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Pichai has been Google CEO since 2015, and he recently became CEO of parent company Alphabet when cofounder Larry Page stepped down in early December. The filing cites Pichai's "expanded role" as CEO of both companies as the reason for the pay increase.

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