Alphabet is the parent of Google and became a separate publicly traded corporate structure in 2015.
Alphabet was created through a corporate reorganization announced by Google in 2015. The plan placed Google’s main internet products into a subsidiary and made Alphabet the broader holding company for Google and other businesses. Alphabet’s separate corporate structure began operating in October 2015, while existing Google shareholders received corresponding Alphabet shares.
The arrangement gave investors more visibility into the performance of Google’s core advertising and internet operations compared with the company’s experimental projects. Google remained responsible for products such as Search, YouTube, Android, and Google Cloud, while “Other Bets” covered ventures outside that core group.
Alphabet’s stock-market value is therefore the combined valuation of its subsidiaries and businesses. This is why financial headlines may describe Alphabet as a leading company by market capitalization even when the consumer-facing brand most people recognize is Google.