Pichai’s Three-Year Pay Package Could Reach 1 Trillion Won, Highest in Alphabet’s History

[Financial News] Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has granted CEO Sundar Pichai a massive compensation package worth more than 1 trillion won. By tying his pay to the performance of future businesses such as self-driving cars and drone delivery, Alphabet is seen as accelerating its strategy to boost corporate value around key new growth engines.
According to a filing Alphabet submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 8th (local time), the board’s Leadership Development and Compensation Committee approved on the 4th a plan to award Pichai a compensation package worth up to $692 million over the next three years, or about 1.033 trillion won.
Pichai’s annual base salary has been set at $2 million, a level that has remained unchanged since 2020. There will be no separate annual cash bonus.
Instead, long-term stock-based compensation is the core of the package. If Pichai remains in his role for three years, he will receive Alphabet stock worth a total of $84 million. On top of that, he can earn up to an additional $252 million in performance-based stock, depending on Alphabet’s total shareholder return (TSR).
A notable feature of the new package is that shares in Alphabet subsidiaries are included for the first time. Depending on performance, stock awards worth up to $260 million tied to self-driving taxi company Waymo and up to $90 million tied to drone delivery company Wing Aviation may be granted.
This structure is widely interpreted as directly linking increases in the enterprise value of Alphabet’s core new businesses to the CEO’s compensation. Some in the market also view it as a design that anticipates potential Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of Waymo and Wing Aviation.
The newly approved package is the largest since Pichai became Google CEO in 2015. It is more than double the 2022 package, which was worth up to $336 million. Alphabet continues to grant stock awards to top executives on a three-year cycle.
Pichai’s pay level ranks near the top even among global big tech CEOs. As of 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s annual compensation was about $96.5 million, while Apple CEO Tim Cook earned around $74.3 million.
On the same day his package was approved, Pichai sold 32,500 Alphabet Class C shares. The shares were sold at an average price of $303, generating about $9.8 million in cash.

km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter