- Alphabet structures a three-year deal for Sundar Pichai worth up to $692 million.
- Most of the compensation is performance-based, tied to Waymo and drone delivery venture Wing.
- Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are buying hundreds of millions in Miami real estate to dodge California’s proposed billionaire tax.
- Pichai holds nearly $500 million in Alphabet shares and has sold an estimated $650 million more.
$692 Million Tied to Waymo and Wing
Alphabet has handed CEO Sundar Pichai a compensation package that could be worth $692 million over three years. The filing, first reported by the Financial Times, would make the Google CEO one of the highest-paid executives in the world — but most of it is contingent on performance, including new stock incentives directly linked to Waymo’s autonomous driving business and drone delivery venture Wing.
The board is betting Pichai can turn Google’s most expensive moonshots into real revenue. Pichai has been CEO since 2015. In that time, Alphabet’s market cap has grown nearly sevenfold. He and his wife Anjali currently hold shares worth close to $500 million, with another estimated $650 million sold as of last summer, per Bloomberg.
Page and Brin Flee to Miami, Pichai Stays Put
The deal lands as Google’s co-founders grab headlines for something unrelated to technology. Larry Page and Sergey Brin — the second- and fourth-richest people in the world — have been snapping up lavish Miami properties in what looks like a direct response to California’s proposed Billionaire Tax Act, a ballot initiative targeting roughly 200 billionaires with a one-time 5% levy on net worth exceeding $1 billion.
Page reportedly spent over $173 million on two mansions in Coconut Grove. Brin committed to a $51 million megamansion 14 miles away, on top of two earlier purchases totaling $92 million. Pichai, by contrast, remains quietly rooted in Los Altos, California.
A Signal to Wall Street and to Rivals
The $692 million package is also a message to investors. Alphabet has faced persistent questions about the commercial viability of its non-Google bets. Waymo has been burning cash for over a decade. Wing has yet to achieve meaningful scale. By tying the CEO’s pay directly to these ventures, the board is telling Wall Street that accountability is built into the deal — and telling rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft that Alphabet is willing to pay for execution at the top.
