Google Hands Sundar Pichai a $692 Million Pay Package Tied to Waymo and Wing
Alphabet has handed Google CEO Sundar Pichai a pay package worth up to $692 million over three years, according to a regulatory filing spotted by the Financial Times. The deal could make him one of the highest-paid executives globally, but most of the compensation is tied to performance targets including new stock incentives linked to Waymo and Wing, Google's drone delivery venture.
The structure reflects Alphabet's bet that autonomous vehicles and drone delivery will be significant revenue drivers. Tying executive compensation to these specific units signals that Google's leadership sees them as more than experimental side projects.
Meanwhile, Google's founders are making headlines for very different reasons. Larry Page, the world's second-richest person, recently spent over $173 million on two Miami mansions. Sergey Brin was linked to a $51 million megamansion nearby, on top of two earlier purchases totaling $92 million. Both moves are widely seen as a response to California's proposed Billionaire Tax Act, which would impose a one-time 5% levy on net worth exceeding $1 billion.
Pichai, by contrast, remains in Los Altos, California. His personal wealth has grown substantially alongside Google's nearly sevenfold market cap increase since he became CEO in 2015. He and his wife hold shares worth nearly $500 million, with an estimated $650 million sold as of last summer.
The pay package is notable not just for its size but for what it reveals about where Alphabet sees its future. In an era dominated by AI headlines, the company is putting significant executive incentives behind hardware-heavy bets in autonomous tech.
