Google owns the Google search engine and became Alphabet’s largest subsidiary after a 2015 restructuring.
In 2015, Google’s founders created Alphabet Inc. as a new holding company. Google became a subsidiary focused on internet products and services, while other businesses, including life sciences and investment projects, were placed under separate Alphabet units. Sundar Pichai became Google’s chief executive and later Alphabet’s CEO.
Google remains the dominant business within Alphabet because of search advertising, YouTube, Android, cloud computing, and related services. Alphabet’s market capitalization therefore reflects investor expectations for the whole corporate group, not only the search website.
The name change can cause confusion because Google remained the consumer-facing brand most people use. Alphabet is the listed parent company, while Google is its principal operating subsidiary. Alphabet’s shares trade publicly under the symbols GOOGL and GOOG, which differ mainly in voting rights.