Google-parent Alphabet Inc said on Wednesday, 21 December 2022, had approved a new equity award for Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai that ties more of his pay to performance.

The board recognises Pichai’s “strong performance” as CEO, the company said, adding that the vesting of a significant portion of the award would depend on Alphabet’s total shareholder return relative to other S&P 100 companies.

Alphabet said the award was tweaked to increase the performance stock units (PSUs) to 60% from 43% in 2019, while increasing the performance requirement for the payout.

Sundar Pichai, who is given an equity award every three years, was granted two tranches of PSUs with a target value of $63 million each.

The CEO was also given a grant of $84 million in the form of Alphabet’s restricted stock units.

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Alphabet Inc.’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, received a hefty $240 million in performance based stock awards since 2019, the highest ever to any executive of the search giant.

When Sundar Pichai took over as Google’s chief in 2015, he drew an annual salary of $6,52,500. The following year, his earnings skyrocketed, thanks to a massive $199 million in stock awards, the highest ever for any Alphabet executive back then.

Sundar Pichai is widely credited for making the Google chrome browser a success and was seen as a potential successor to Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer before Satya Nadella took over in February 2014.