The parent company of Google, formed in 2015, is Alphabet Inc. Google announced the restructuring on August 10, 2015, and the corporate reorganization was completed on October 2, 2015.
Alphabet was created as a holding company so Google’s core internet businesses could be separated from a collection of other ventures. Google became Alphabet’s largest subsidiary, while projects such as Waymo, Verily, Calico, and X Development could operate with greater independence under the broader corporate structure.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the new arrangement. Page became Alphabet’s chief executive, while Sundar Pichai became Google’s CEO. In 2019, Pichai also became Alphabet’s CEO after Page stepped away from executive leadership.
A frequent mistake is choosing Waymo, because it is a well-known Alphabet company, or Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook. Alphabet is the corporate parent; Google is its principal subsidiary and remains the name associated with Search, YouTube, Android, and many other products.