Alphabet owns Google and was formed as a new parent company in 2015.
Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, announced the Alphabet restructuring in August 2015. Alphabet became the corporate parent, while Google remained the main subsidiary handling internet products such as Search, YouTube, and Android.
The structure separated Google’s core advertising and technology operations from several longer-term projects, including life sciences and advanced research ventures. Page became Alphabet’s chief executive, and Sundar Pichai became Google’s CEO.
Alphabet is often included among the world’s richest companies by market capitalization because Google’s advertising engine generates enormous revenue. The company’s stock-market valuation reflects Alphabet as a whole, not Google Search alone.