Mashable: Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai earned an astounding $226 million in the previous year, placing him among the highest-paid CEOs. According to papers released last Friday, the sum comprises a sizable portion of shares issued to Pichai. Despite this, his annual compensation has been set at $2 million since 2020.

Pichai receives a large sum of money every three years in the form of stock awards; in 2019, he received more than $280 million. It was in this year that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced their retirement from the company. The complaint also claims that Alphabet spent over $6 million on Pichai's personal protection.

Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, Prabhakar Raghavan, and chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, also raked in huge paychecks. Each executive made about $37 million thanks to annual stock grants.

According to Insider, Pichai's pay comes at an inopportune time, what with recent layoffs at Alphabet and other major giants like Meta and Twitter. Pichai "fully owns the decisions that led us here," according to an internal memo after Alphabet laid off 12,000 employees in January. Moreover, he stated that the corporation had conducted a "rigorous review," resulting in layoffs across all "product areas, functions, levels, and regions."

After hefty payouts in prior years sparked outrage among shareholders, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sought a compensation decrease for 2023. Cook's salary is scheduled to be $49 million, a decrease of about 40% from 2022's levels.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was one of the highest-paid CEOs in 2022. To help finance his buyout of Twitter, he sold about $23 billion in shares. However, Musk does not get anything from the electric vehicle manufacturer.