Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Surpasses Apple Inc. (AAPL) To Become World's Most Valuable Public Company In After-Hours Trading

Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) just knocked Apple Inc. (AAPL) off its pedestal as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. The share price of the company formerly known as Google popped in after-hours trading Monday following a strong earnings report, sending its market capitalization to $550 billion. By comparison, Apple’s market cap is currently $538.7 billion.

Alphabet’s stock traded hands at $794.95 at 4:34 p.m. EST, up 5.71 percent from the market closing price of $752.

Apple surpassed Google back in 2010 when each company had a market value of less than $200 million. That was before Apple released the first iPad and several successive generations of the iPhone, which has become the company’s dominant product, accounting for 66 percent of its revenue. The company’s stock has been hurt by flat sales and an unclear story about what will drive its next phase of growth.

Alphabet’s earnings report for the last quarter of 2015 represented the first time the company has broken out its so-called moon-shot ventures, such as Google Fiber and its self-driving car initiative. Those ventures have little or nothing to do with the company’s core search-advertising business, but they represent some of its biggest bets on the future. Alphabet’s new corporate structure now allows their performances to be judged separately.

“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years,” said Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat. “We’re excited about the opportunities we have across Google and other bets to use technology to improve the lives of billions of people.”