Google’s parent company, Alphabet, disclosed late last week how much compensation it gave its chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, in 2022.
The pay package awarded to Pichai reached a whopping $226 million last year, which was even boosted by a triennial stock grant, earning him a spot on the list of the world’s highest-paid corporate leaders.
Alphabet said his pay’s stock award portion amounted to $218 million. In 2021, though him receiving a grant did not take place that year, he still received a total of $6.3 million in compensation. Plus, Pichai’s salary remained consistent at $2 million for the past three years.
The CEO’s stock awards happen triennially. The one he received last 2022 had the same on-target value as the stock award he received last 2019. However, his latest one showed an increased percentage of performance stock units (PSU) and a higher performance requirement for on-target PSU payout, a Google spokesperson said.
But wait, there’s more. Google said there is also the “all other compensation” part that counted $5.935 million for his “personal security” and “generally consists of our 401(K) plan or Roth plan company match of up to $10,250 and personal use of company aircraft, unless otherwise noted.”
These make his earnings more than 800 times the median total employees receive. The Google filing said Alphabet employees received a median total compensation of $279,802 in 2022.
Meanwhile, in other Alphabet news, the company said on Tuesday that its board of directors had authorized $700 billion in share repurchases. Plus, Alphabet’s earnings are also soaring high, more than what is expected.
Should Google end up spending the total amount on buybacks, that would be in the same range and represent a continuation of last year’s pace. In April 2022, the company also announced $70 billion in share repurchases.
Here are the specific figures from Alphabet’s earnings, side by side with estimates from analysts Bloomberg has compiled. For the revenue, Alphabet got $69.7 billion actual versus the $69.96 billion expected.
For the Earnings Per Share, the company got $1.17 actual versus the $1.08 expected. For its Google Ad revenue, it reached $54.55 billion actual versus the $53.75 billion expected. Finally, for the company’s YouTube Ad revenue, it got $6.69 billion actual versus the $6.64 billion expected.
“We are pleased with our business performance in the first quarter, with Search performing well and momentum in Cloud. We introduced important product updates anchored in deep computer science and AI. Our North Star is providing the most helpful answers for our users, and we see huge opportunities ahead, continuing our long track record of innovation,” Alphabet CEO Pichai said in an official statement over the company’s first quarter of 2023 results.
On March 21, Alphabet made a revolutionary move by launching Google Bard, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool many experts say would be a tough competitor for OpenAI’s ChatGPT. OpenAI recently updated its ChatGPT platform, introducing more features with its ChatGPT-4.
“We remain committed to delivering long-term growth and creating capacity to invest in our most compelling growth areas by re-engineering our cost base,” said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google.
