Alphabet became the first internet-search company to exceed a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, crossed the $1 trillion level in January 2020. Google’s search engine remained the central business, generating advertising revenue from searches and websites, while YouTube, cloud computing, mobile software, and hardware broadened the company’s activities.
Alphabet was created in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring. Google became a subsidiary, and Alphabet became the publicly traded parent. This structure separated the core internet business from several other projects and companies, including life-science and long-term technology initiatives.
The phrase “search company” can be misleading because Alphabet owns much more than Google Search. Its market value reflected expectations for the wider group, including advertising, cloud services, and future businesses. The valuation also changed daily with Alphabet’s share price and was later affected by stock splits.