Alphabet became the parent company of Google in 2015 and is one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
The corporate restructuring was announced in August 2015 and completed later that year. Google remained the core operating company, while Alphabet became the holding company for Google and several other ventures. This arrangement separated Google’s main internet businesses from projects such as life sciences and self-driving technology.
Alphabet’s major businesses include Google Search, YouTube, Android, Google Maps, and Google Cloud. Advertising has historically supplied most of the company’s revenue, with Search and YouTube providing especially important platforms for advertisers.
Alphabet is sometimes mistakenly called Google in stock-market comparisons. Google is the principal subsidiary, while Alphabet is the publicly traded parent company. Alphabet’s market capitalization therefore reflects investor expectations for the entire corporate group, not only the search engine.