Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on stage during the annual Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.
Stephen Lam | Reuters
Sundar Pichai will make $2 million in salary and up to several hundred million dollars in stock grants in his new position at CEO of Alphabet, the board announced on Friday.
Pichai, who had been the CEO of Alphabet’s main subsidiary Google since 2015, clinched the promotion to the helm of the parent company earlier this month when Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down. Page had been CEO of Alphabet and Brin served as president, a position that is now eliminated.
Pichai will not receive any additional voting rights with his new shares, leaving Page and Brin in control of the board.
Pichai’s new salary will take effect Jan. 1, with his stock units divided between time and performance-based equity. Of his $120 million in time-based stock units, one-twelfth will vest on March 25, 2020, with another twelfth vesting each quarter to follow that he continues to be employed by the company.
The performance-based stock unit award will be divided into two equal parts with a target value of $45 million each. He could be granted between 0% and 200% of the shares in each part, depending on the total shareholder return for Alphabet relative to S&P 100 companies between 2020 and 2021 and between 2020 and 2022, respectively. The actual value of the grants will vary depending on the stock price at the time.
As Google CEO, Pichai made $650,000 in annual base pay, and previously shirked additional shares of the company, according to a May report from Bloomberg. Pichai turned down additional restricted stock units in 2018 because he already felt he was generously paid, a person familiar with the decision told Bloomberg, though it’s unclear how much he turned down.
As CEO of Alphabet, Pichai will be the public face of the company as it continues to face challenges in the new year. Google faces an antitrust probe from 50 attorneys general across U.S. states and territories as well as a reported probe by the Justice Department. Lawmakers have signaled they will keep an eye on Google and other tech companies that have come under scrutiny their engagement in China as well as its privacy and data-tracking policies.
