Alphabet was created in 2015 as the parent company of Google and several other businesses.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the restructuring in August 2015, with the new holding company formally taking control later that year. Google became Alphabet’s largest subsidiary, while activities such as research, investment, and experimental technology projects could be organized separately.
The change was intended to make the company’s diverse operations more transparent and to give individual businesses greater independence. Sundar Pichai became Google’s chief executive in 2015 and later became Alphabet’s CEO in 2019. Alphabet is not the same entity as Google, although Google remains its best-known business. The name also avoids a common mix-up with the alphabet used in writing: the corporate name was chosen partly to suggest a collection of letters and a foundation for language.