Alphabet became the fourth U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, following Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Alphabet crossed the milestone in January 2020 as its share price rose after strong earnings news.
Alphabet is the parent company created in 2015 for Google and several related businesses. Google Search and online advertising remain central to its finances, while YouTube, Google Cloud, Android, and other activities broaden the group’s business.
The milestone is sometimes attributed simply to Google, but the publicly traded company is Alphabet Inc. Since the 2015 corporate restructuring, Alphabet has been the listed parent whose shares represent ownership of Google and its other major units. That distinction matters when identifying the exact company in market-cap records.