New York : Google CEO Sundar Pichai doubled the amount he made in 2015, as he received nearly $199.7 million in compensation last year.
According to a filing from Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOGL, Tech30), the company’s compensation committee attributed the generous pay to Pichai’s promotion to CEO and “numerous successful product launches.”
Alphabet’s stock has soared this year, pushing it above a $600 billion market cap this week for the first time.
Pichai’s base pay was a mere $650,000. On top of that, he received a stock award for $198.7 million, reports CNN.
Under Pichai’s leadership and keen eye, Google has boosted sales from its core advertising and YouTube business, while also investing in machine learning, hardware and cloud computing.
In 2016, Google unveiled new smartphones, a virtual reality headset, a router, and a voice controlled smart speaker similar to the Amazon Echo.
And clearly, these efforts have started to pay off for the company. A seasoned Google executive, Pichai had taken over as CEO as part of a corporate restructuring in 2015, while Larry Page, Google’s cofounder and previous CEO, shifted his focus to growing new businesses under the Alphabet umbrella.
Pichai’s massive pay package came even as his two bosses and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, once again drew salaries of only $1 for their roles as CEO and President, respectively, of parent company Alphabet.
But Page and Brin are each worth more than $40 billion through their stock holdings.
According to the report, Pichai’s raise came during a year when Google’s sales rose 22.5%and net income rose 19%as it maintained its position as the top seller of internet advertising.
