Sundar Pichai becomes billionaire despite sharp drop in salary over 2 years — here’s how much the Google CEO earns

Google parent Alphabet's Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, the Indian-origin tech leader, has achieved yet another feat as he became a billionaire on Thursday.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Sundar Pichai's net worth now stands at $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list pegs the Google CEO's net worth at $1.2 billion.

Sundar Pichai's salary dropped in 2024, but net worth rose

Sundar Pichai's salary in 2024 dropped massively in comparison to what he earned in 2022. According to Alphabet's annual report, Pichai's compensation took a massive hit as the CEO took home $10.72 million.

This is a big drop from the $226 million he got as compensation in 2022.

But there are reasons why the drop happened. In 2022, Sundar Pichai received a massive stock award that’s only given once every three years.

His base salary, however, stayed at $2 million throughout these years. The Google CEO earned the rest of the amount through stock-related income and other company perks.

Meanwhile, Alphabet in 2024 spent 22 per cent more money on Pichai's security at $8.27 million, including “residential security and consultation fees, security monitoring services, car and driver services, and personal security during all travel.”

Why did Sundar Pichai's net worth rise?

The reason why Sundar Pichai's net worth is rising is because of the stellar performance of Alphabet in the quarter gone by, and a subsequent rally in its stocks.

Alphabet on Wednesday reported quarterly profits that topped expectations, saying artificial intelligence has boosted every part of its business.

Alphabet's second-quarter profit of $28.2 billion — on $96.4 billion in revenue — came with word that the tech giant will spend $10 billion more than it previously planned this year on capital expenditures, as it invests to meet growing demand for cloud services.

Alphabet shares rose as much as 4.1 per cent after markets opened in New York on Thursday, their biggest intraday gain in two months.

This resulted in a jump in Sundar Pichai's net worth, too, who owns a 0.02 per cent stake in Alphabet. The tech giant is currently valued at around $440 million.