Last week, we reported that Alphabet, the holding company for Google and all its disparate moonshot affiliates, would surpass Apple as the most valuable company in the world. That future has now come to pass.
Thanks in no small part to Apple’s mediocre earnings report last week, Alphabet is now the most valuable company in all the land being worth $553 billion compared to Apple’s $538 billion. The obvious breadwinner is Google, as emphasized when Alphabet separated Google from its more money-dependent Big Idea companies like Calico, X, and Fiber. Google is still the number one source of advertising in the world.
Google separated those newly minted companies as Other Bets from all the money-making enterprises going on at Google proper. Despite the current money pit that is Alphabet’s moonshot ideas—they cost Alphabet nearly $3.6 billion last year—Google still makes enough to hit the top spot, roughly $74.5 billion in revenue and total income of $23 billion. TL;DR:
I guess it’s called alphabet for a reason.
We’re expecting to hear more during Alphabet’s earnings call. Updating...
Contact the author at darren.orf@gizmodo.com