Alphabet changed its name from Google Inc. to Alphabet Inc. in 2015 while remaining Google’s parent company.
The corporate restructuring was announced in August 2015 and completed later that year. Alphabet became the holding company, while Google continued operating its core internet businesses, including search, advertising, YouTube, Android, and Chrome.
The structure separated Google’s established products from other ventures, such as life sciences, autonomous-vehicle technology, and research projects. Sundar Pichai became Google’s chief executive, while Larry Page became Alphabet’s chief executive and Sergey Brin became its president.
Alphabet is a major market-capitalization company because Google’s advertising and cloud businesses generate substantial revenue and profit. The name change did not mean that the search engine itself became a separate public company; Alphabet remained the listed parent whose shares represented ownership of the group.