The owner of Google is Alphabet Inc., a publicly traded conglomerate established in 2015 that serves as the parent company of Google and its diverse portfolio of businesses. Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, retain significant control through special Class B shares, which hold the majority of the voting power, allowing them to influence company decisions despite not owning a majority of the total shares. Sundar Pichai is the CEO of both Google and Alphabet Inc.
Key points:
- Alphabet Inc. owns Google as its largest subsidiary.
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin control about 56% of Google's voting power via Class B super-voting shares.
- Alphabet's ownership structure includes Class A (one vote/share), Class B (10 votes/share, not publicly traded), and Class C shares (no voting rights).
- Alphabet Inc. oversees Google and other ventures like Waymo, Verily, and DeepMind.
- Sundar Pichai is the current CEO responsible for running Google and Alphabet.
Thus, Google is owned by Alphabet Inc., with original founders retaining control through special voting shares, while operational leadership is under Sundar Pichai.