Alphabet briefly crossed a $1 trillion market capitalization in January 2020, becoming the fourth U.S. company to do so.
The parent company of Google passed the threshold during trading on January 16, 2020. Alphabet’s valuation reflected investor demand for Google Search, YouTube, advertising technology, and the rapidly expanding Google Cloud business.
Alphabet was created in 2015 during a corporate restructuring that placed Google and several experimental businesses under a new parent company. Although Google remains the best-known brand, Alphabet is the listed company whose shares determine the group’s market capitalization.
The milestone is sometimes incorrectly attributed directly to Google. Google supplies most of Alphabet’s operating identity, but Alphabet Inc. is the publicly traded parent named in market-value rankings.