Alphabet was the first publicly traded firm to reach a $1 trillion market cap using a dual-class share structure.
Alphabet crossed the $1 trillion threshold in January 2020. Its dual-class structure gives different groups of shares different voting rights, allowing founders and insiders to retain greater voting control than their economic ownership alone would provide.
The arrangement originated with Google’s public-company structure. Class A shares carry one vote per share, while Class B shares carry enhanced voting power; Class C shares generally carry no voting rights. Alphabet’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have historically retained substantial control through high-vote shares.
Market capitalization measures economic value, not voting power. A dual-class structure can therefore let investors value a company at more than $1 trillion while a relatively small group still controls a majority of shareholder votes.