Alphabet became the fourth U.S. company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization in January 2020.
Alphabet is the parent company created in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring of Google. Its market capitalization reflects the value of the publicly traded Alphabet shares, whose main operating business remains Google, including Search, YouTube, and advertising technology.
Apple was the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion, followed by Amazon and then Microsoft. Alphabet’s milestone showed how digital advertising and internet services had created enormous public-company valuations. Alphabet also owns businesses and projects outside Google, including its former “Other Bets” activities.
The company is often called Google in everyday conversation, but the listed corporate entity is Alphabet Inc. That distinction matters in a market-cap question: Alphabet, not Google as a separately traded company, is the parent corporation whose shares investors buy.