Alphabet owns Google, YouTube, and Android under its corporate umbrella.
Alphabet was created in 2015 as a holding company for Google and several other businesses. Google remains the central operating company, with products including its search engine, YouTube video platform, Android mobile operating system, Chrome browser, and Google Cloud.
Because Alphabet is the publicly traded parent, market-cap rankings usually value these activities together. Investors buy Alphabet shares rather than a separately listed Google subsidiary. The company reports Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets as major reporting categories.
A common mix-up is treating Google and Alphabet as two independent market-cap companies. Google is the best-known operating brand, while Alphabet is the legal public parent. Alphabet’s share classes also have different voting rights, but both trade under the same parent-company structure.