Alphabet owns Google and became the fourth U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Alphabet crossed the threshold in January 2020, following Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. The company was created in 2015 as Google’s parent organization, allowing the core Google business and its newer projects to operate under a wider corporate structure.
Google remains Alphabet’s largest business, with search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, and cloud services among its best-known operations. Alphabet also includes other ventures, such as the self-driving technology company Waymo and the life-sciences business Verily.
A common mix-up is to call Alphabet simply “Google.” Google is the principal subsidiary and consumer-facing brand, while Alphabet is the publicly traded parent company whose shares determine the group’s market capitalization.