Alphabet Inc. crossed a new milestone this week with a blockbuster earnings report, Sundar pichai capping a dramatic rise that’s seen the company add more than $1 trillion in market value since early 2023. According to Bloomberg, Alphabet has delivered a 120% return to investors over that period, underscoring Wall Street’s renewed confidence in the tech giant’s AI-powered growth story.
Sundar Pichai joins billionaire club
This surge has also catapulted the Indian-origin CEO Sundar Pichai into the billionaire ranks — a rare distinction for a non-founding executive. As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Pichai, 53, is now worth $1.1 billion, driven largely by Alphabet’s rally and years of steady compensation.
Stock performance and AI investments
Alphabet shares jumped as much as 4.1% on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. The company also raised its 2025 capital expenditures estimate by $10 billion, bringing it to $85 billion, largely to fund AI infrastructure.
“Our AI infrastructure investments are crucial to meeting the growth in demand for cloud customers,”
— Sundar Pichai, during Alphabet’s Q2 earnings call.
The company also posted a 16% increase in R&D spending, reflecting its aggressive push into artificial intelligence.
Stock sales
While Pichai holds only a 0.02% economic stake in Alphabet, worth approximately $440 million, most of his net worth is in cash, according to Bloomberg. He has sold over $650 million worth of Alphabet stock over the past decade — a move that, the news outlet estimates, cost him more than $1 billion in potential gains.
Had he retained all his shares, his stake would be valued at over $2.5 billion at current prices, the report stated.
Investments beyond tech
Pichai has been investing some of his wealth in cricket, as per the report. As per the news outlet, he is part of a tech executive consortium that purchased a 49% stake in the London Spirit cricket franchise for $182 million. The team competes in The Hundred, a new British cricket league launched in 2020.
A decade at Google
Pichai, who was not part of Google’s founding in 1998, reached another key milestone this month: becoming Alphabet’s longest-serving CEO. August marks 10 years since he assumed the role in 2015. He later took over as CEO of Alphabet in 2019 following a corporate restructuring that elevated the parent company’s prominence.
From humble heginnings to silicon valley
Pichai’s rise has been anything but ordinary. He was raised in a two-room apartment in Tamil Nadu, where his family didn’t own a car and got their first telephone when he was 12. When he earned a scholarship to Stanford University in 1993, his family spent over $1,000 — more than his father’s annual salary — on a one-way plane ticket to California.
From Chrome to AI: Climbing the Google ranks
Joining Google in 2004, Pichai led the Chrome browser development and later headed Android, gaining prominence within the company. Under his leadership, Alphabet has ramped up its AI investments, notably the $400 million acquisition of DeepMind in 2014 — a landmark move in Google’s AI evolution.
In 2023 alone, Alphabet spent nearly $50 billion on AI-specific investments including semiconductors, energy capacity, and data centers, Bloomberg reported. The company has also continued acquiring AI talent and firms.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)