Google once paid Neal Mohan $100 million to stop him from joining Twitter
A resurfaced revelation from Nikhil Kamath’s podcast sheds light on the fierce talent wars of Silicon Valley, as tech giants battled to retain future CEOs.
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More than a decade ago, Google reportedly paid Indian-American tech executive Neal Mohan a staggering $100 million to prevent him from leaving the company for Twitter - a revelation that recently resurfaced during an episode of Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath's podcast.
The podcast featured a conversation about the competitive dynamics of talent retention in Big Tech, with Kamath referencing the YouTube CEO's critical role at Google in 2011. "I remember reading this thing about Google offering you $100 million not to quit. Not today, but 15 years ago, which was a lot of money," Kamath said. While Mohan didn't directly confirm the figure, he didn't deny it either.
According to a 2011 report by TechCrunch, the compensation came in the form of restricted stock units that would vest over several years.
The lucrative offer was made after Twitter attempted to recruit Mohan as its chief product officer - an effort reportedly led by David Rosenblatt, a Twitter board member, and Mohan's former boss at adtech firm DoubleClick.
At the time, Mohan was a key architect of Google's advertising and video product strategy, wielding significant influence over the company's future in digital media. His contributions, especially around YouTube and programmatic advertising, made him a high-value asset for Google as rivals like Twitter aggressively courted senior talent.
The battle for top-tier executives wasn’t limited to Mohan. Around the same period, Twitter also tried to hire Sundar Pichai, then leading Chrome and Chrome OS at Google. In response, Google is said to have offered Pichai a $50 million stock grant to retain him - a move that paid off, as both Mohan and Pichai later ascended to the top of their respective organizations.
Neal Mohan, who holds an electrical engineering degree from Stanford, began his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and moved into the digital advertising space with NetGravity, which was later acquired by DoubleClick. When Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2007, Mohan joined the tech giant and steadily rose through the ranks.
Mohan became CEO of YouTube in 2023, following Susan Wojcicki’s departure, while Sundar Pichai took charge as Google’s CEO in 2015 and became Alphabet Inc.’s chief executive in 2019.
