How Alphabet became the biggest company in the world

Silicon Valley – and Wall Street – have a new king. Alphabet, the company formerly known as Google, looks set to become the world's largest publicly traded company on Tuesday thanks to a spike in its share price, following exceptionally good results and a decision to come clean on how its makes and spends its money. Google's Alphabet set to overtake Apple as world's most valuable company Less than a year after it stormed past Berkshire Hathaway, ExxonMobil and Microsoft on its way to the top, the company's value has passed Apple. Tuesday will see whether it can hold on to those gains but the battle is on. In the past six months alone, since Google restructured to become Alphabet, its cap has risen by $200bn (£139bn), almost doubling its total value.