Alphabet is the parent of Google and became a major global market-cap company after restructuring in 2015.
Google announced the creation of Alphabet in August 2015, with the new holding company becoming the corporate parent later that year. Larry Page became Alphabet’s chief executive, while Sundar Pichai became Google’s CEO. The reorganization separated Google’s core internet products from several other businesses and research projects.
Google remained Alphabet’s largest operating company, encompassing products such as Search, YouTube, Android, and Google Cloud. Alphabet also provided a structure for businesses including autonomous-vehicle research and life-sciences initiatives.
Alphabet’s market capitalization reflects the value investors assign to the entire corporate group, not just the Google search engine. This is why company names can be confusing: Google is the operating company, while Alphabet is the publicly traded parent.