text: Google CEO Sundar Pichai describes one of the company’s new Android Nexus smart phones in 2014. Alistair Barr for The Wall Street Journal 
   
   Alphabet Inc. granted Sundar Pichai, chief executive of the company’s main Google business, an equity award valued at nearly $200 million, making him one of the world’s highest-paid executives. 
   
   In a securities filing Friday, Alphabet said it awarded Mr. Pichai 273,328 Class C Google stock units on Feb. 3. At that time, the grant was valued at $199 million, though subsequent declines in Alphabet shares put the current value at about $182 million. 
   
   The new award vests in quarterly increments over the next four years as long as Mr. Pichai is employed by Alphabet. 
   
   The grant lifts the value of Mr. Pichai’s equity stake in Alphabet to more than $600 million. That is still well below the stakes held by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt, Alphabet’s executive chairman, who was hired several years after the company started. 
   
   However, the award is one of the largest by a U.S. company. In 2011 Apple Inc. awarded Tim Cook a grant valued at about $376 million when he was named chief executive, succeeding co-founder Steve Jobs. 
   
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   For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook. ||||| Pichai received 273,328 shares, company filing shows, bringing his holdings in Alphabet to $650m – still far less than the net worth of Google’s founders 
   
   The boss of Google, Sundar Pichai, has been awarded $199m (£138m) worth of shares, making him the highest paid chief executive in the US. 
   
   
   
   Pichai, who became Google’s CEO in October following its reorganisation into holding company Alphabet, was handed 273,328 shares, according to a company filing, worth $199m when they were awarded. 
   
   The new shares takes the value of Pichai’s Alphabet holdings to roughly $650m – or 14,440 times the $45,000 median net worth of US citizens as calculated by Credit Suisse. 
   
   But it is still far short of the fortunes made by Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who are worth $34.6bn and $33.9bn according to Forbes. It is also a lot less than Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, who holds shares worth $3bn. 
   
   Sundar Pichai: Google's rising star reaches the top (like his teacher said he would) Read more 
   
   Pichai’s award is worth more than the £130m ($187m) Google has grudgingly agreed to pay the UK government in back taxes since 2005. Critics of the controversial tax deal have calculated that Google generated sales of £24bn ($34.6bn) in the UK between 2005 and 2014 on which it has reported profit margins of between 25% and 30%, which works out an estimated profit of about £7.2bn ($10.4bn). As it already agreed to pay about £70m ($101m) in addition to the £130m ($187m) settlement, Google’s effective tax rate is between 2% and 3%, compared to the UK’s 20% headline corporation tax rate. 
   
   Pincai celebrated his award, which will vest in quarterly increments until 2019, by watching the Super Bowl and meeting NFL legend Ronnie Lott. 
   
   
   
   sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) Great game, even more so meeting a true NFL legend Ronnie Lott #SB50 pic.twitter.com/pUPjBsbYEh 
   
   Pichai, 43, was not the only Google executive given a big payday. Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, was handed shares worth about $38m. That is on top of the $30m signing bonus she was given to lure her away from Morgan Stanley last year. 
   
   Diane Greene, who has been head of Google’s cloud computing business since November, was awarded shares worth $42.8m. This was on top of $148m worth she was granted last year following Google’s takeover of Bebop Technologies, a tech company she founded.
target: – Google's parent company appears to be satisfied with how Sundar Pichai has performed during his four months as Google CEO, judging by the gargantuan $199 million equity award revealed in a securities filing. Alphabet stated that Pichai was awarded 273,328 Class C Google stock units on Feb. 3, bringing his holdings to around $650 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. The award makes Pichai the highest-paid CEO in America, according to the Guardian, which notes that Pichai's fortune is dwarfed by those of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who are worth around $34 billion each, and by that of previous CEO Eric Schmidt, who's sitting on around $3 billion. (A former Google employee was awarded exactly $6,006.13.)