Alphabet on Thursday became the fourth company in the world to reach a $1 trillion USD market value.
According to a new report from CNBC, shares of the Silicon Valley-based parent of Google on Thursday rose 0.8 percent to $1,450.16 USD, giving it a market capitalization of just over $1 trillion for the first time.
Alphabet — whose Google unit was founded in 1998 out of a garage in Menlo Park, California by Larry Page and Sergey Brin — joins the trillion-dollar club with fellow tech juggernauts Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, all of which have reached the 12-zero milestone over the past two years.
Google is also facing the most tumultuous period of its 21-year history. The search giant is dealing with antitrust investigations from both state and federal officials. And members of its workforce are in open revolt, protesting Google’s work in China, contract with the Pentagon and handling of sexual harassment allegations against senior executives.
Still, those controversies largely haven’t hurt the value of Alphabet’s stock. The company’s digital advertising business is still a prime moneymaker — the company generated almost $140 billion USD in annual revenue in 2018. Alphabet is scheduled to report full-year 2019 earnings February 3.
Google restructured under the Alphabet umbrella in 2015, separating Google’s marquee internet businesses, like search, maps and YouTube, from more experimental “other bets” like driverless cars and med-tech projects.
Apple is currently the world’s most valuable company with a market cap of $1.4 trillion USD. Microsoft is valued at $1.3 trillion USD, while Amazon has recently slipped to $931 billion.
