Google CEO Sundar Pichai pay doubled, gets $200 mn compensation in 2016

Pichai's base pay was a mere $650,000. On top of that, he received a stock award for $198.7 million

Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai received a stock award of $198.7 million in 2016, almost double his 2015 stock award of $99.8 million, a media report said.

That brought his total compensation in 2016 to $199.7 million, almost twice the $100.6 million he earned in 2015.

Pichai received a salary of $650,000 in 2016, slightly less than the $652,500 he earned in 2015, CNBC reported on Friday.

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."

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 one dollar 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 per cent and net income rose 19 per cent as it maintained its position as the top seller of internet advertising.

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.

Under Pichai's leadership and a 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.