Sundar Pichai Could Make $692M; His Robotaxi Has to Work First

Alphabet has approved a new pay package for its CEO that is unlike anything it has offered before. Most of the upside does not come from Google’s stock; it comes from whether its robotaxi and drone delivery businesses actually grow.

Alphabet has given Sundar Pichai a pay package worth up to $692 million over the next three years, but there is a catch. A large chunk of it only pays out if Waymo and Wing, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle and drone delivery arms, significantly grow in value. If they don’t, Pichai gets nothing from that portion. Alphabet disclosed the deal in an SEC filing on March 6, 2026.

The structure is to the point on the surface. Pichai’s base salary stays at $2 million a year, the same it has been since 2020, and he still gets no annual bonus. The real money, as always, is in equity. He gets $84 million in standard restricted stock that vests monthly over three years regardless of how the company performs. He also gets $126 million in performance stock tied to how well Alphabet’s shares do relative to the S&P 100, which can double to $252 million if Alphabet outperforms, or go to zero if it underperforms.

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But the new part is what Alphabet calls Bet Performance Units. Pichai is being awarded $130 million worth tied to Waymo and $45 million tied to Wing. These don’t settle in Alphabet shares, they settle in actual Common Units of Waymo LLC and Wing Aviation LLC. If both businesses grow strongly over three years, the payout can reach double the target. If neither grows in per-unit value at all, the filing is explicit: Pichai gets nothing from these awards. Zero.

Further incentivizing Mr. Pichai to focus his efforts on developing and scaling Alphabet’s later stage Other Bets, such as Waymo and Wing, is in the best interests of Alphabet and its stockholders.
Alphabet Inc., Form 8-K, SEC Filing, March 6, 2026

What makes this unusual is that it ties a CEO’s personal financial outcome directly to the performance of two subsidiaries that have not yet turned a profit. Waymo runs robotaxi services in a handful of US cities. Wing does drone delivery in limited markets. Both are impressive technically, but neither has yet proved it can scale commercially. Alphabet is essentially telling Pichai: your biggest payday depends on whether you can make these businesses work.

Alphabet’s board said in the filing that it made this decision because it wants Pichai focused on developing and scaling its “later stage Other Bets.” The board added that it will maintain its own active oversight of Waymo and Wing alongside Pichai’s role, a sign that these subsidiaries are now material enough to warrant direct board-level attention, not just CEO-level management.

Disclaimer: This article is based entirely on Alphabet Inc.’s Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on March 6, 2026. All figures and structural details are sourced directly from that document. No secondary sources have been used.

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