- Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google owner Alphabet, was paid a total of $226 million in 2022.
- His package was boosted by stock awards worth $218 million.
- Alphabet also spent almost $6 million on personal security for Pichai, according to a filing.
Alphabet's Sundar Pichai was paid a total of $226 million last year after he was awarded a big tranche of shares, making him one of America's best-paid CEOs.
The chief executive of Google's owner was given worth more than $218 million, according to filings published Friday. His base annual salary of $2 million hasn't changed since 2020.
Pichai is awarded shares every three years and took home more than $280 million in 2019, the year cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially stepped down from their executive roles.
Alphabet also spent almost $6 million on personal security for Pichai, according to the filing.
Other executives, including senior vice president of Google's knowledge and information, Prabhakar Raghavan, and chief business officer Philipp Schindler both made about $37 million, per the filing. They are awarded shares annually.
Pichai's compensation makes him one of the world's best-paid CEOs. The timing is awkward following layoffs at Alphabet as well as other companies in the tech sector such as Meta and Twitter.
Alphabet cut 12,000 jobs in January and Pichai said in a memo he was taking "full responsibility for the decisions that led us here."
"Over the past two years we've seen periods of dramatic growth," he wrote. "To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."
Pichai said the company had undertaken a "rigorous review" and that jobs were being cut across all "product areas, functions, levels and regions."
Apple CEO Tim Cook asked to have his pay cut for 2023 after huge packages in previous years caused controversy among shareholders. He is set to earn $49 million, about 40% less than in 2022.
Elon Musk was arguably the best-paid boss last year after selling shares in Tesla worth almost $23 billion to help fund his takeover of Twitter. The CEO doesn't take a salary or bonus from the EV maker.
Alphabet didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.