Alphabet looks like a simple advertising company. Beneath the surface, it controls a corporate network so large it barely fits on a balance sheet.
Alphabet is usually described as a familiar bundle of products: Search, YouTube, Android, Maps. A big company, but a legible one. Its revenue reports reinforce this image, showing a business still dominated by advertising.Yet when researchers stopped looking at products and started mapping ownership, investments, and corporate ties, Alphabet stopped looking like a company at all and started looking like infrastructure.