Google increased CEO Sundar Pichai’s security costs by 22% in 2024
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, arrives for a US Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 13, 2023. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Google paid $8.27 million for CEO Sundar Pichai’s personal security in 2024, according to a new filing with the the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
That figure is up nearly 22% from $6.78 million in 2023, due in part to a number of security measures taken during Pichai’s busy year.
“In 2024, Sundar’s security arrangements included residential security and consultation fees, security monitoring services, car and driver services, and personal security during all travel,” Alphabet’s 2025 proxy statement reads. “We believe these arrangements and costs are reasonable, appropriate, necessary and in the best interests of Alphabet and its stockholders, as they mitigate risks to our business.”
The document went on to say “we do not consider these additional security arrangements to be a personal benefit to Sundar because they arise from the nature of his employment responsibilities.”
Google declined to comment.
The increase came as Pichai traveled extensively in 2024, often speaking with world leaders about technological advancements, including artificial intelligence. Google — which generated 12% higher revenue in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the year prior — is at the center of an AI arms race and its position in the search market may be threatened by AI competition and mounting regulation.
Including stock awards, Pichai’s total compensation was $10.73 million during the 2024 fiscal year, according to the proxy. That’s up from $8.8 million the previous year.
It’s unclear how Google has changed its security spending for Pichai in 2025, but at least a dozen S&P 500 companies have increased security costs as more companies see heightened threats to their top brass following the December murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, according to a recent Reuters analysis.
Besides Pichai, Alphabet’s legal chief Kent Walker received nearly $30.2 million in total compensation last year, according to the filing. That’s up from $27.3 million the previous year. Alphabet’s new finance chief Anat Ashkenazi’s received a total compensation of about $50 million, which included a nearly $10 million bonus.
The average total compensation for Google’s full-time employees was $331,894, a 5% increase from the previous year’s average of $315,531.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will serve as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hiring blitz in recent weeks, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In June, Zuckerberg announced a new organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs that’s made up of top AI researchers and engineers.
Zhao’s name was listed among other new hires in the June memo, but Zuckerberg said Friday that Zhao co-founded the lab and “has been our lead scientist from day one.” Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who is acting as Meta’s chief AI officer.
“Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field,” Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post. “I’m looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision.”
In addition to co-creating ChatGPT, Zhao helped build OpenAI’s GPT-4, mini models, 4.1 and o3, and he previously led synthetic data at OpenAI, according to Zuckerberg’s June memo.
Meta Superintelligence Labs will be where employees work on foundation models such as the open-source Llama family of AI models, products and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research projects.
The social media company will invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” into AI compute infrastructure, Zuckerberg said earlier this month.
“The next few years are going to be very exciting!” Zuckerberg wrote Friday.
WATCH: Meta announces massive ‘Prometheus’ & ‘Hyperion’ data center plans
Technology
Palantir joins list of 20 most valuable U.S. companies, with stock more than doubling in 2025
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, speaks on a panel titled Power, Purpose, and the New American Century at the Hill and Valley Forum at the U.S. Capitol on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Palantir has hit another major milestone in its meteoric stock rise. It’s now one of the 20 most valuable U.S. companies.
The provider of software and data analytics technology to defense agencies saw its stock rise more than 2% on Friday to another record, lifting the company’s market cap to $375 billion, which puts it ahead of Home Depot and Procter & Gamble. The company’s market value was already higher than Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
Palantir has more than doubled in value this year as investors ramp up bets on the company’s artificial intelligence business and closer ties to the U.S. government. Since its founding in 2003 by Peter Thiel, CEO Alex Karp and others, the company has steadily accrued a growing list of customers.
Revenue in Palantir’s U.S. government business increased 45% to $373 million in its most recent quarter, while total sales rose 39% to $884 million. The company next reports results on Aug. 4.
Earlier this year, Palantir soared ahead of Salesforce, IBM and Cisco into the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap.
Buying the stock at these levels requires investors to pay hefty multiples. Palantir currently trades for 273 times forward earnings, according to FactSet. The only other company in the top 20 with a triple-digit ratio is Tesla at 175.
With $3.1 billion in total revenue over the past year, Palantir is a fraction the size of the next smallest company by sales among the top 20 by market cap. Mastercard, which is valued at $518 billion, is closest with sales over the past four quarters of roughly $29 billion.
WATCH: Palantir’s Mike Gallagher: Enforcing a ceasefire will require a greater investment of American power
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike