Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai’s pay rose to $226mn last year

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai saw his total pay last year rise to $226mn, thanks to a giant stock award that is likely to have made him one of America’s best-paid business leaders for the year.

News of the stock award, which Google’s parent company makes to its CEO once every three years and which was worth $218mn, follows the company’s move earlier this year to cut jobs across the board in the face of a sharp advertising slowdown. Pichai was reported at the time to have told workers that senior executives would receive lower bonuses as part of the cost-cutting.