A model can reach millions before anyone chooses it by name. At Alphabet, Sundar Pichai oversees the researchers who build Gemini, the infrastructure that runs it and the products through which people encounter its answers. Google’s founders retain voting power that the chief executive himself does not possess.
Alphabet · Nasdaq GOOGL and GOOG
Google started in 1998 around Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s search research. An early $100,000 cheque from Andy Bechtolsheim helped the founders start the company. That cheque describes one investment. Alphabet, the listed parent formed in 2015, brings Google Services, Cloud and Other Bets under one board. Google’s founding history
Capital and voting rights. The April 2026 proxy lists 227,560 Class A shares beneficially owned by Pichai. The figure is specific to that class. Larry Page alone held 27.4% of the combined vote. Class B shares carry ten votes each. Pichai is CEO and a director. John Hennessy chairs the board. Alphabet voting and ownership tables
From the browser to the model
Chrome made a complex technology accessible through a simple interface. With Gemini, the same ability to reach users has a different consequence. Google can put an answer in front of a reader in Search, supply the model through a developer interface and sell the infrastructure to a rival. Its own tensor processing units give it another way to influence the cost of serving those answers. The November introduction of Gemini 4 Hydrogen is a release claim by the supplier. Users still need evidence about cost, accuracy and reliability on their own work. Gemini release announcement
Who gets the default position?
An independent developer can train an excellent model and still struggle to reach a phone’s default search box. In the US search case, a federal court found unlawful maintenance of monopoly power and imposed remedies affecting distribution and access to certain data. The defendant was Google. The finding concerns specific markets and conduct. It gives readers a concrete test for the AI era: can a user genuinely choose another supplier, and can that supplier reach them? Justice Department account of the remedies
Information checked on 15 November 2026. Ownership figures and proposed transactions refer to the dates in the linked records.
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