Google’s cricket-loving CEO has just become a billionaire

Alphabet’s earnings beat was the latest milestone in what’s been an explosive run since early 2023, during which Google’s parent company has added more than $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) in market value and returned about 120 per cent to investors. It’s also made its CEO, Sundar Pichai, a billionaire.

With Alphabet’s shares approaching an all-time high, Pichai, 53, is now worth $US1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s a rare feat for a non-founding chief executive officer, especially in a tech industry where many top executives — including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang — owe their fortunes to founding equity stakes in their companies.

It’s rare for a non-founding member of a tech giant to become a billionaire. Credit: Bloomberg

Although he wasn’t there for the company’s creation in 1998, Pichai became its longest-serving CEO this month. August will mark his 10th anniversary since assuming the role.

A spokesperson for the California-based company declined to comment on Pichai’s net worth.

Modest background

Born into a middle-class family, Pichai grew up in a two-room apartment in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The family didn’t own a car and only got its first telephone when he was 12. When Pichai won a graduate scholarship to Stanford University in 1993, his family spent more than his father’s annual salary — $USUS1000 — to buy a plane ticket to California.

After being hired in 2004 by Google — as the company was then known — Pichai spent more than a decade working his way up the ranks, helping to develop the Chrome browser and leading the Android division before he was tapped as CEO in 2015.

That was the same year Google restructured itself to become a subsidiary of parent company Alphabet and began more heavily emphasising components of its business beyond its core search function. Pichai was also named CEO of Alphabet in 2019.

“One of the first things I did as CEO was to pivot the company to be focused on AI,” Pichai told Bloomberg in an interview in October.

After being hired in 2004 by Google — as the company was then known — Pichai spent more than a decade working his way up the ranks before being named CEO in 2015. Credit: Bloomberg

Google made its first major artificial intelligence investment in 2014 with the $USUS400 million purchase of London-based startup DeepMind. Pichai has continued to increase capital expenditures significantly, spending about $US50 billion last year alone on AI-specific endeavours including energy capacity, semiconductors and data centre projects. The company has continued to expand through acquisitions, as well, paying $USUS2.4 billion for staff and licensing rights from coding startup Windsurf earlier this month.

Alphabet shares were up as much as 4.1 per cent Thursday after the company reported quarterly sales and profit that beat analysts’ estimates. Alphabet also raised its 2025 capital expenditures estimate by $USUS10 billion to $USUS85 billion, and reported a 16 per cent jump in research and development spending.

“Our AI infrastructure investments are crucial to meeting the growth in demand for cloud customers,” Pichai said on Wednesday on a call with analysts after the company released its second-quarter results.

Stock sales

Pichai holds a 0.02 per cent economic stake in the company, worth about $US440 million, leaving the bulk of his fortune in cash. He’s sold more than $US650 million worth of Alphabet stock over the past decade.

Those sales have cost him more than $US1 billion in potential gains. If he’d held on to all of his shares, his stake would be more than $US2.5 billion at current prices, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Although it’s relatively unusual for a non-founding CEO to achieve a billion-dollar net worth, Pichai isn’t even the first at his own company to do so. Eric Schmidt, 70, who was CEO from 2001 to 2011, is worth $US36.6 billion, with the bulk of his wealth still held in Alphabet stock, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. Schmidt oversaw the company’s 2004 initial public offering and the debut of products including YouTube and Google Maps.

The company’s co-founders are significantly wealthier. Larry Page, 52, and Sergey Brin, 51, have net worths of $US171.2 billion and $US160.4 billion, respectively, making them among the seven richest people in the world.

One place Pichai is spending his money is professional cricket. Pichai, a lifelong fan of the sport, is part of a consortium of tech executives who paid $US182 million this year for a 49 per cent share of London Spirit, a four-year-old franchise that competes in startup British cricket league The Hundred.

Bloomberg

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