Google CEO Poised to Cash In $380 Million Award This Week

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is about to have a very big week, according to Bloomberg.

An award of 353,939 restricted shares he received before a promotion in 2014 will vest this week. At the end of last week, the grant was worth about $380 million, making it one of the largest single payouts to a public company executive in recent years.

Pichai, 45, who has led Google since 2015, received the shares before his promotion to senior vice president of products a year earlier, when he took over many of co-founder Larry Page’s responsibilities. The award swelled in value as Alphabet’s stock surged 90 percent since the grant date. He has received two more nine-figure stock grants since then. The company has yet to disclose Pichai’s compensation for 2017.

In 2016, CEOs of S&P 500 companies realized an average of $16.2 million from shares that vested or exercising stock options. Other tech executives have received hefty payouts in the past. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reaped $2.28 billion when he exercised 60 million options as part of the company’s initial public offering in August 2012. Months later, restricted shares worth $822 million held by his deputy Sheryl Sandberg fully vested.

In 2016, Tesla’s Elon Musk collected $1.34 billion after exercising 6.71 million options that were close to expiring, in part to cover a $593 million tax bill. That same year, Monster Beverage’s two top executives took in a combined $598 million thanks to the stock rising an average of 30 percent a year for a decade.