Alphabet (Google)

Alphabet is the holding company that owns Google and several other businesses. It was created in 2015 in a reorganization led by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google itself dates from 1998, when the two founders built a search engine at Stanford.

Google runs Search, Maps, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube and the Android mobile system. Most of its income comes from advertising sold across these services. Google Cloud sells computing and data tools to companies, and the Gemini models power its AI features.

Other Alphabet units work on separate projects. Waymo develops self-driving vehicles and runs a driverless ride service in some US cities. Verily works on health research, and Google DeepMind focuses on AI research. Sundar Pichai is the chief executive of both Alphabet and Google. Advertising on Google Search and YouTube brings in most of the revenue. The company also sells Pixel phones, Nest home devices and Chromebook laptops. Regulators in the United States and Europe have brought antitrust cases over its search and advertising businesses.