Who Owns the Media: Alphabet

Alphabet (Google) 🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Compromising
Category: Online Platforms & Streaming 
Market Cap: $2.072 trillion 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined the cowards’ row of Silicon Valley CEOs during Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Prior to the swearing in, parent company Alphabet announced that it would make a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural committee. Pichai’s priorities are to see that the Trump Justice Department abandons two high-profile antitrust lawsuits aimed at breaking Google’s market power. But Pichai was also at the ceremony to ensure his company has a seat at the table when it comes to shaping AI policy — and winning lucrative government AI contracts — in a Trump-controlled Washington.

In a company-wide meeting in February 2025, Google announced plans to scrap the tech giant’s diversity initiatives. The Google Calendar also “disappeared” Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Month, Women’s History Month and other popular observances. Google also announced that its Maps tool would now give preference to Trump’s jingoist name — the “Gulf of America” — for the Gulf of Mexico. Pichai told Google staff that the company “deeply cared” about workforce diversity but that it now had to comply with a Trump executive order directing federal agencies and contractors to dismantle their DEI work.

Google is deeply reliant on several government contracts and is participating in a $9 billion joint Pentagon contract alongside Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle. It’s also under contract to provide the tech at the center of federal projects to upgrade the “virtual wall” that surveils the U.S. border.

What It Owns:

Online services (including AdScape, AdSense, AdWords, Blogger, Chrome, Cloud, Flights, Gmail, Google Search, Shopping, Maps, Nest, Translate, Waze and Workspace); online streaming (including YouTube Music and TV); wired and wireless telecommunications services and products (including Fitbit, Google Fiber and Pixel); other (including DeepMind AI, Gemini AI, Jigsaw, Sycamore quantum computing, Verily, Waymo self-driving technology and Wing).

Money & Influence Game:

Alphabet paid lobbyists $14,790,000 in 2024, and Alphabet employees made $20,604,525 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). (SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics)