Alphabet is the publicly traded parent corporation that owns Google.
Google’s founders announced the Alphabet restructuring in 2015. Under the new arrangement, Alphabet became the parent company, while Google became its largest subsidiary and continued operating major products such as Search, YouTube, Android, and Chrome.
The restructuring separated Google’s core internet businesses from several other projects, including life sciences, autonomous vehicles, and investment activities. Those businesses could operate as distinct units while remaining under the same corporate parent.
Alphabet trades on Nasdaq under the symbols GOOG and GOOGL. The two share classes have different voting rights, which is an important reason why market-cap calculations use the combined value of the company’s publicly traded shares.