Google parent Alphabet is now the world's most valuable company, passing Apple in the market

Shares of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, rose nearly 4% Tuesday morning. Alphabet was already set to take the title Monday night, before sealing the deal Tuesday morning. At Monday's after-hours levels (which technically reflect an indication, but not the real-world value), Alphabet's market cap hit roughly $570 billion, eclipsing Apple's market cap of about $535 billion. Shares of Apple opened Tuesday down nearly 1 percent.
 
 Apple's massive market cap is still trailed by Microsoft ($425.7 billion), Facebook ($326.2 billion) and Exxon Mobil ($310.1 billion) to round out the list of the world's five biggest companies.

Alphabet started the day with a market valuation of about $551 billion. Apple's stock fell 1%, pushing its market value down to $531 billion.


The majority of Alphabet's sales and earnings still come from its core Google operations -- things like search, Android and YouTube. And those businesses are doing extremely well.
That's a big reason why Alphabet stock has held up so well despite this year's volatile market conditions.

Some think it's possible that Alphabet will become the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion in market value.


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