The search giant founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 — now an Alphabet subsidiary that holds ~90% of search, was ruled an illegal monopolist in 2024, and spent 2023 quietly becoming one of Anthropic's biggest backers.
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- Country
- United States
- Founded
- 1998, by Stanford graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, building on their BackRub search engine; the name plays on "googol," with an early investor's misspelling sticking
- Headquarters
- Mountain View, California
- Parent company
- Alphabet Inc. since the August 2015 restructure; Google is Alphabet's largest company, keeping Search, Maps, Android, YouTube and ads
- Leadership
- Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Eric Schmidt joined as CEO in 2001 (the "triumvirate"); Page returned as CEO in 2011; Sundar Pichai has led Google as CEO since the 2015 Alphabet restructure
- Search scale
- More than 70% of worldwide online search requests (Britannica); ~90% of online search and ~95% of smartphone search per the 2024 court ruling; 200 million searches a day by 2004, ~3 billion a day by end of 2011
- Anthropic investment
- Reported ~$300 million stake (~10%) in February 2023, alongside Google Cloud becoming Anthropic's preferred cloud provider; up to $2 billion more agreed in October 2023 ($500 million upfront, $1.5 billion over time)
- Legal status
- Ruled an illegal monopolist by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on August 5, 2024 (Sherman Act Section 2); Google planned to appeal, with a remedies trial to follow
- Revenue mix
- In 2023, Alphabet's ad revenue was $175 billion — 57% of Google's revenue, per Britannica's figures
- Infrastructure
- The Google File System, Bigtable and MapReduce let it scale search computing beyond rivals; by the late 2000s the company had more than 50 products
Overview
In February 2023, while Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar bet on OpenAI was resetting the AI industry, Google quietly took a stake in the other major AI lab: the Financial Times confirmed that Google had invested around $300 million in Anthropic, worth roughly 10% of the company, while Anthropic publicly announced that it had chosen Google Cloud as its preferred cloud provider (PYMNTS). Eight months later the bet grew: an Anthropic spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that Google had agreed to invest up to $2 billion more — $500 million upfront plus another $1.5 billion over time — in a deal framed explicitly as an effort to keep pace with Microsoft (Reuters). Anthropic, co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, develops the Claude models; the two deals made Google one of the biggest financial backers of the company racing OpenAI (Reuters).
Less than a year after that, a federal judge gave Google a very different kind of headline. On August 5, 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had violated antitrust law to build and preserve an illegal monopoly over internet search (Hindustan Times). Mehta found that Google controls about 90% of online search and 95% of smartphone search, writing that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” Google said it would appeal; U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the decision a historic win for competition, and a second trial to determine remedies — with a possible breakup of Alphabet on the table — was set to follow (Hindustan Times).
A Stanford project called BackRub
The company behind both the Anthropic bets and the antitrust ruling began as a graduate-student project. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, formalizing the work they had started on a search engine called BackRub built in a Stanford dorm room (Britannica). The name was a play on “googol,” the term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros — an intended nod to the vast number of web pages; an early investor’s misspelling stuck (Britannica). Backing from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim helped the pair raise about $1 million and open a first office in a Menlo Park garage (Britannica).
Scale, auctions, and acquisitions
Google grew at a pace that made its name a verb. In 1999 it raised $25 million from two venture-capital firms, and in 2000 Yahoo selected it as the search engine for its site — the distribution deal that put Google in front of the mainstream web (Britannica). The numbers followed: from hundreds of thousands of queries a day early on, Google reached 200 million searches a day by 2004 and roughly 3 billion a day by the end of 2011 (Britannica). Behind that scale sat its infrastructure work — the Google File System, Bigtable, and MapReduce — which let it distribute computing jobs across vast machine fleets in ways rivals could not match (Britannica).
The 2004 IPO was deliberately unconventional: a Dutch auction designed to give ordinary investors a fairer shot, raising $1.66 billion (Britannica). Leadership had already professionalized — Eric Schmidt joined as CEO in 2001, forming a “triumvirate” with the founders, before Page returned to the top job in 2011 (Britannica). Google joined the S&P 500 in 2006, and acquisitions built out its advertising and product empire: AdSense ($102 million, 2003), dMarc ($102 million, 2006), a $900 million advertising agreement with MySpace, DoubleClick ($3.1 billion, 2007), and AdMob ($750 million) (Britannica). In 2012 it bought Motorola Mobility (Britannica). By the late 2000s the company held more than 70% of the search market and offered more than 50 products (Britannica).
G is for Google, A is for Alphabet
In August 2015, Page announced the company’s biggest corporate change since the IPO: Google would become a subsidiary of a new holding company called Alphabet, a “bit slimmed down” Google keeping Search, Maps, Android, YouTube, and the advertising business while the far-afield bets — Calico, Life Sciences, Nest, Fiber, Google Ventures, Google Capital, and Google X — moved under the Alphabet umbrella (BioSpace). Page became Alphabet’s CEO with Brin as president, and Google’s former senior vice president of products, Sundar Pichai, stepped up to run Google (BioSpace). All Google shares converted into Alphabet shares, continuing to trade on the Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG (BioSpace).
The business model underneath never changed much: advertising funds the machine. In 2023, ad revenue of $175 billion accounted for 57% of Google’s revenue, per Alphabet’s reporting as cited by Britannica (Britannica). The company remains headquartered in Mountain View, California (Britannica).
The AI-race hedge
The Anthropic investments were Google’s answer to an AI race it had helped start but was at risk of losing: Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership had reset the board, and Google’s own deep-learning research team, Google Brain, was absorbed into DeepMind in April 2023 to form Google DeepMind (PYMNTS, TechCrunch). Pichai had told investors on Google’s earnings call that AI was reaching an “inflection point” and described it as a powerful enabler for businesses (PYMNTS). Buying a large stake in the leading OpenAI rival was the hedge.
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not assert a single total figure for Google’s Anthropic investment — the sources read confirm a reported ~$300 million in February 2023 and an agreement for up to $2 billion in October 2023 ($500 million upfront, $1.5 billion over time), but not how much of either tranche was ultimately deployed. It does not claim an outcome for the antitrust remedies phase, which was still pending at the time of the coverage read for this profile; Google’s appeal and the second trial were reported as upcoming, not decided. It cites the “G is for Google” announcement through contemporary coverage, not through the original blog post, which was not located. And it does not present Google’s current product lineup, headcount, or market capitalization, which change constantly and were not verified at a fixed point for this profile.
Timeline
- 1998
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin found Google, formalizing the BackRub search engine they built in a Stanford dorm room. Backing from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim helps them raise about $1 million and open a first office in a Menlo Park garage.
- 1999
- Google raises $25 million from two venture-capital firms as it scales beyond the garage.
- 2000
- Yahoo selects Google as the search engine for its site, the company's biggest distribution deal to date.
- 2001
- Eric Schmidt joins as CEO, forming a leadership "triumvirate" with founders Page and Brin.
- 2004
- Google goes public via an unconventional Dutch auction, raising $1.66 billion; it was handling about 200 million searches a day.
- 2006
- Google joins the S&P 500, and by decade's end holds more than 70% of the search market with over 50 products.
- 2012
- Google acquires Motorola Mobility, putting it in the position to sell hardware in the form of mobile phones.
- 2015
- Page announces the Alphabet restructure: Google becomes Alphabet's largest subsidiary, keeping Search, Maps, Android, YouTube and ads, while Calico, Life Sciences and Google X move to Alphabet; Page becomes Alphabet CEO, Brin president, and Sundar Pichai CEO of Google. In November, the company open-sources its TensorFlow machine-learning system.
- 2023
- In February, a Financial Times report confirms Google invested around $300 million in Anthropic (~10% stake) as the AI startup names Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider. In October, Google agrees to invest up to $2 billion more in Anthropic — $500 million upfront plus $1.5 billion over time — explicitly to compete with Microsoft. In April, Google merges its Google Brain and DeepMind research teams into Google DeepMind.
- 2024
- On August 5, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rules Google is a monopolist that violated antitrust law to maintain its search dominance; Google says it will appeal as a remedies trial looms.
Sources
6 sources (4 tier 1, 2 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
- Google Tier 1Supports: Read in full on this date; no article publication date shown on the page. The founding story (1998, Page/Brin, BackRub, Stanford dorm, Bechtolsheim, ~$1M raised, "googol" misspelling, $25M VC in 1999, Yahoo 2000); scale stats (500K queries/day, 200M/day by 2004, 3B/day end 2011); infrastructure (GFS, Bigtable, MapReduce); Schmidt 2001, triumvirate, Page CEO 2011; the 2004 IPO ($1.66B Dutch auction); S&P 500 2006; acquisitions (AdSense $102M 2003, dMarc $102M 2006, MySpace $900M ads, DoubleClick $3.1B 2007, AdMob $750M); 70%+ search share; HQ Mountain View; 50+ products; Motorola Mobility 2012; 2023 Alphabet ad revenue $175B = 57% of Google revenue. Open original source
- Supports: The Aug 5, 2024 Mehta ruling: "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly"; ~90% online search and ~95% smartphone search shares; Google's planned appeal; AG Merrick Garland's "historic win" comment; the case's origin under the Trump administration; the remedies phase and possible Alphabet breakup. Open original source
- Supports: The Oct 27, 2023 agreement: up to $2B ($500M upfront + $1.5B over time), confirmed by an Anthropic spokesperson; Anthropic co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei; framed as competition with Microsoft/OpenAI; Amazon's parallel $4B plan. Open original source
- Supports: The April 2023 merger of the Google Brain team from Google Research with DeepMind into Google DeepMind; Brain formed 2011 as a part-time research collaboration between Jeff Dean, Greg Corrado and Andrew Ng; TensorFlow and Google Translate enhancements credited to Brain; Sundar Pichai as Google CEO. Open original source
- Supports: The Feb 2023 ~$300M investment (~10% stake) reported by the Financial Times; Anthropic's Feb 3 announcement naming Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider (no figures in the official release); the Microsoft/OpenAI comparison; Pichai's earnings-call quotes on AI reaching an "inflection point." Open original source
- Google's New Parent Company Alphabet and What It Means for Life Sciences, Calico, and Healthcare Tier 2Supports: The Aug 10, 2015 "G is for Google" announcement: Alphabet holding company; Page as Alphabet CEO, Brin as president; "a bit slimmed down" Google keeping Search, Maps, Android, YouTube and ads; Calico, Life Sciences, Nest, Fiber, Ventures, Capital and Google X moving to Alphabet; Sundar Pichai stepping up as Google CEO; shares converting to Alphabet and trading on Nasdaq as GOOGL/GOOG. Open original source
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