Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) vs Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Alphabet Inc. is a holding company that wholly owns Google, one of the world’s largest internet businesses. Based in California, the company generates just under 90% of its revenue from Google Services, with advertising sales representing the clear majority. In addition to digital advertising, Google Services includes revenue from subscription offerings such as YouTube TV and YouTube Music, platform sales and in-app purchases through the Play Store, and hardware products including Chromebooks, Pixel smartphones, and smart home devices like Chromecast. Google Cloud contributes about 10% of Alphabet’s total revenue. The remainder comes from investments in emerging technologies and businesses, including self-driving cars through Waymo, health initiatives via Verily, and internet access services such as Google Fiber.

Microsoft Corp develops and licenses software for both consumer and enterprise markets. The company is best known for its Windows operating systems and Office productivity applications. Its business is organized into three broadly equal segments: Productivity and Business Processes, which includes legacy Microsoft Office, cloud-based Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype, LinkedIn, and Dynamics; Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service offerings, Windows Server, and SQL Server; and More Personal Computing, which includes Windows Client, Xbox, Bing search, display advertising, and Surface laptops, tablets, and desktop devices.