When was Alphabet Inc. officially created and by whom?

Alphabet Inc. was announced on the 10th of August 2015 by Larry Page in a blog post on Google's official blog. The restructuring process completed on the 2nd of October 2015 when the newly formed subsidiary merged with Google.

What subsidiaries does Alphabet Inc. own besides Google?

Alphabet Inc. owns diverse subsidiaries including Waymo for autonomous driving, Verily for human health, Calico for aging research, and X Development for moonshot technologies. Other units include Wing for drone delivery, Intrinsic for robotics software, and Isomorphic Labs for drug discovery.

Why did Alphabet Inc. restructure from Google Inc. into a holding company?

The motivation behind the reorganization was to make Google cleaner and more accountable while improving transparency and oversight. Former executive Eric Schmidt revealed that inspiration came from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway model which consists of subsidiaries with strong CEOs trusted to run their businesses.

Alphabet Inc.: the story on HearLore

Q: Who are the current leaders and major shareholders of Alphabet Inc?

Sundar Pichai serves as CEO while John L. Hennessy has been Chair since February 2018. Larry Page and Sergey Brin each control around 3% of all shares but together with other insiders they control the majority of voting shares.

On the 10th of August 2015, Google announced plans to create a new public holding company called Alphabet Inc. Larry Page made this announcement in a blog post on Google's official blog. The goal was to restructure Google by moving subsidiaries from the main company to Alphabet. This move narrowed Google's scope significantly. Sundar Pichai became the new chief executive officer of Google. He replaced Page, who transitioned to running Alphabet alongside co-founder Sergey Brin. Page stated that the planned holding company would allow for more management scale. He explained they could run things independently that were not very related to Google. As a result, Google would be slimmed down. Companies far afield of their main internet products were contained in Alphabet instead. The motivation behind the reorganization was to make Google cleaner and more accountable. Page wanted to improve transparency and oversight of what they were doing. Former executive Eric Schmidt revealed in 2017 that the inspiration came from Warren Buffett. Schmidt encouraged Page and Brin to meet with Buffett in Omaha. They saw how Berkshire Hathaway operated as a holding company. It consisted of subsidiaries with strong CEOs trusted to run their businesses. Before it became a subsidiary, Google Inc. was structured as the owner of Alphabet. The roles reversed after a placeholder subsidiary was created. The newly formed subsidiary merged with Google. Google's stock converted to Alphabet's stock under Delaware General Corporation Law. A holding company reorganization like this can be done without a shareholder vote. The restructuring process completed on the 2nd of October 2015.

On the 3rd of December 2019, Page and Brin jointly announced they would step down from their respective roles. They remained employees and held the majority vote on the board of directors. Sundar Pichai assumed the CEO role at Alphabet while retaining his position at Google. The firm completed a stock split in mid-2022. On the 20th of January 2023, Pichai wrote a letter to all employees announcing layoffs. He stated that over the past two years they had seen periods of dramatic growth. To match that growth, they hired for a different economic reality than the one facing them today. John L. Hennessy has served as Chair since February 2018. Ruth Porat holds the title of President and Chief Investment Officer. Anat Ashkenazi serves as Chief Financial Officer. Amie Thuener O'Toole is the Chief Accounting Officer. Larry Page and Sergey Brin each control around 3% of all shares. Together with other insiders, they control the majority of voting shares. Institutional investors own over 60% of shares. The Vanguard Group held 7.25% of shares in December 2023. BlackRock owned 6.27%. State Street Corporation held 3.36%. Fidelity Investments possessed 2.07%. Geode Capital Management controlled 1.76%. T. Rowe Price held 1.73%. JPMorgan Chase owned 1.42%. Capital International Investors held 1.42%. Morgan Stanley possessed 1.30%. Northern Trust owned 0.95%.

Alphabet Inc. serves as the parent of a diverse set of subsidiaries. Calico focuses on human health by overcoming aging under Arthur D. Levinson. CapitalG acts as private equity for growth-stage technology companies led by David Lawee. Google remains the largest subsidiary providing internet services under Sundar Pichai. Google Fiber offers Internet access via fiber managed by Dinesh Jain. GV provides venture capital for technology companies directed by David Krane. Intrinsic develops robotics software under Wendy Tan White. Isomorphic Labs uses artificial intelligence for drug discovery headed by Demis Hassabis. Mineral handles sustainable agriculture with Elliott Grant. Verily works on human health under Stephen Gillett. Waymo manages autonomous driving operations led by Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana. Wing delivers freight using drones overseen by Adam Woodworth. X Development conducts research and development for moonshot technologies under Astro Teller. Their equity is held by a subsidiary known as XXVI Holdings, Inc. This refers to the Roman numeral of 26, the number of letters in the alphabet. Eric Schmidt said at an Internet Association event in 2015 that there may eventually be more than 26 Alphabet subsidiaries. He was currently meeting with CEOs of current and proposed subsidiaries. Many former divisions became subsidiaries of Alphabet while Google remained the umbrella company for Internet-related businesses. Former subsidiaries include Nest Labs merged into Google in February 2018. Chronicle Security merged with Google Cloud in June 2019. Sidewalk Labs absorbed into Google in 2021 following CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff's departure due to suspected ALS diagnosis. Loon LLC shut down in January 2021 citing lack of a scalable business model.

The key trends of Alphabet Inc. show revenue growth from 2016 through 2024. Revenue reached 350 billion USD in 2024 with net income of 100 billion USD. Total assets grew to 450 billion USD. Employee count rose to 183 thousand. In 2017, 86% of revenues came from performance advertising through user clicks using AdSense and Google Ads. Brand advertising accounted for the remainder. Of these, 53% came from international operations. This translated to total revenue of US$110,855 million in 2017. Net income was US$12,662 million. On the 1st of February 2016, Alphabet surpassed Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company. Apple surged back over Alphabet on the 3rd of February 2016. Experts cited Apple's lack of innovation as well as increasing Chinese competition. Alphabet is ranked No. 15 on the Fortune 500 rankings of largest United States corporations by total revenue. On the 16th of January 2020, Alphabet became the fourth U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market value. In October 2022, Alphabet recorded weakest quarterly growth with fewer sales in nearly a decade. The possible global recession, strong U.S. dollar, and pandemics contributed to slowed economy. In 2022, Alphabet had second-highest expenditure on research and development worldwide at US$39.5 billion. In 2023, Alphabet ranked 7th in Global 2000. On the 26th of April 2024, Alphabet surpassed a market valuation of $2 trillion for first time. This surge followed announcement of company's first-ever dividend payout and significant $70 billion stock buyback program. Company's first-quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations. As of June 2024, company is one of 10 largest components of MSCI KLD 400 Social Index. On the 15th of September 2025, Alphabet became fourth company to reach $3 trillion market valuation.

In 2017, Alphabet Inc. sued Uber over technology similar to proprietary self-driving car technology. Waymo developed autonomous vehicle technology for a decade. Proprietary technology related to 14,000 documents believed downloaded and stolen by former Waymo engineer subsequently employed by Uber. Lawsuit settled in February 2018 with Uber agreeing not to use disputed technology. Uber also agreed to provide Waymo equity stake of 0.34% equating around $245 million at early 2018 value. In October 2018, class action lawsuit filed against Google and Alphabet due to non-public Google+ account data exposed. Privacy bug allowed app developers access to private user information. Litigation settled July 2020 for $7.5 million with payout to claimants of at least $5 each. Maximum payout was $12 each. In October 2020, United States Department of Justice filed antitrust lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices. On the 2nd of December 2020, National Labor Relations Board filed complaint claiming unlawful monitoring and questioning of workers. Employees fired for unionization attempts and protesting company policies. Board alleges Google unlawfully placed employees on administrative leave in retribution. Alphabet denied wrongdoing saying it acted legally. On the 7th of June 2021, Alphabet settled antitrust suit with French Autorité de la concurrence paying $270 million. Settlement amounted to less than 0.7% of yearly earnings. On the 12th of June 2021, Japan launched antitrust probe into Alphabet and Apple regarding dealings with Japanese smartphone makers. In May 2022, Russian authorities seized Google's Russian bank account forcing bankruptcy filing one month later. Free services like Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Android and Play remained available.

In November 2017, Alphabet led Series A round of $71 million along with Andreessen Horowitz and 20th Century Studios. Music startup UnitedMasters founded by Steve Stoute received funding. Alphabet invests in more mature companies including publicly traded Uber and privately held Medium. Analysis suggested Alphabet was most active investor in 2017 period outdoing capital arm of Intel. It also outdid its own best customer. Alphabet acquired seven of its own capital-backed startups in 2017 financial year. Cisco second having acquired six previous investments. On the 16th of January 2020, Alphabet became fourth U.S. company to reach trillion dollar market value entering club for first time. In October 2022, weakest quarterly growth recorded with fewer sales in nearly a decade. Possible global recession, strong U.S. dollar, and pandemics contributed to slowed economy. In 2022, second-highest expenditure on research and development worldwide at US$39.5 billion. In 2023, ranked 7th in Global 2000 largest public companies. On the 26th of April 2024, surpassed market valuation of $2 trillion for first time following announcement of first-ever dividend payout and significant $70 billion stock buyback program. First-quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations contributing positive investor sentiment.

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