Who Owns YouTube?

By Benjamin Locke – Updated Oct 23, 2025 at 6:18 PM | Fact-checked by Parker Hicks

Key Points

YouTube is owned by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which was restructured from Google in 2015.
Alphabet's Class A (GOOGL) and Class C (GOOG) shares are publicly traded.
Major institutional investors include Vanguard and BlackRock.

Knowing who owns YouTube is becoming increasingly important as the video-sharing platform continues to attract a massive number of eyeballs, especially compared to traditional media. It hosts an eclectic array of content, from educational tutorials to personal vlogs curated by influencers.

YouTube is known as the go-to video platform both for short- and long-term video content and is heavily influential on a global scale, from business to politics. Let's explore who is behind this content machine.

NASDAQ: GOOGL

Alphabet

Today's Change

(0.42%) $1.21

Current Price

$291.31

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$3515B

Day's Range

$287.32 - $291.92

52wk Range

$140.53 - $291.92

Volume

20M

Avg Vol

34M

Gross Margin

59.18%

Dividend Yield

0.00%

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The largest shareholders of YouTube and Alphabet

In business, it's not so much about who owns the most as who controls the most. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have structured things so that their combined Alphabet Class B stock holdings allow them to exert 51.4% voting control of the company.

This is a regular setup in tech companies where founders are eager for capital but reluctant to relinquish control. It's very common for both social media stocks and streaming service stocks. A breakdown of the major shareholders as of October 2025, originally published in April of 2025

Individual investors

Larry Page owns roughly 389 million shares of Alphabet. Page is one of the co-founders of Google and previously held the position of CEO.
Sergey Brin holds roughly 362 million shares. Brin co-founded Google alongside Larry Page and served as the company's president.
Eric Schmidt owns roughly 56.8 million. Schmidt was Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011 and later served as executive chairman until 2017.
L. John Doerr owns roughly 23.2 million shares. Doerr is a venture capitalist and an early Google investor.
K. Ram Shriram owns roughly 1.8 million shares. Shriram was a founding board member and an early Google investor.

Institutional investors

A major portion of Alphabet's Class A and Class C shares are held by major institutional investors like Vanguard, BlackRock (BLK +0.29%), and State Street (STT -0.22%). That's due to their extensive exchange-traded fund (ETF) and mutual fund offerings.

These firms manage funds that track major indexes, such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, which include Alphabet as a significant component due to its large market capitalization and influence in the technology sector.

Vanguard Group owns 516.56 million Class A shares and 416.75 million Class C shares of Alphabet.
BlackRock owns 430.81 million Class A shares and 361.54 million Class C shares.
State Street owns 226.01 million Class A shares and 188.91 million Class C shares.
Fidelity owns 216.38 million Class A shares and 101.83 million Class C shares.
Geode Capital Management owns 141.62 million Class A shares and 107.76 million Class C shares. Primarily serving as a manager for Fidelity index funds, Geode's holdings in Alphabet represent a significant portion of its managed assets.

Who is on the board of directors for YouTube?

Page and Brin have significant voting power in Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube owner Google, and continue to serve on its board of directors despite stepping down from day-to-day management in 2019. Google's board of directors consists of the following individuals.

YouTube's Board of Directors.
Name	Role	Shareholder %	Board Tenure	Profile	Notable Contributions
Larry Page	Google co-founder, board member	3.1%	Since Google's founding in 1998	Co-founded Google, continues to serve on Alphabet's board since stepping down as its CEO in 2019	Served as CEO of Google from 1998-2001 and 2011-2015 and as CEO of Alphabet from 2015-2019
Sergey Brin	Google co-founder, board member	2.9%	Since Google's founding in 1998	Co-founded Google, continues to serve on Alphabet's board since stepping down as its president in 2019	Served as Google's president of technology from 2001-2011 and president of Alphabet from 2015 to 2019
Sundar Pichai	CEO of Alphabet and Google	0.028%	Since December 2019	Led key projects like Chrome and Android	Transitioned Google to Alphabet and is CEO of both Google and Alphabet
John L. Hennessy	Chairman of the board	Not specified	Since April 2004	Renowned computer scientist	Former president of Stanford University
Frances Arnold	Board member	Not specified	Since December 2019	Expert in directed evolution	Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2018)
R. Martin "Marty" Chavez	Board member	Not specified	Since July 2022	Vice chairman and partner of Sixth Street Partners	Former chief information officer and CFO of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
L. John Doerr	Board member	2.507%	Since May 1999	Early investor in Google	Partner at Kleiner Perkins
Roger W. Ferguson Jr.	Board member	Not specified	Since June 2016	Expertise in economics and finance	Former vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve
K. Ram Shriram	Board member	0.33%	Since Google's founding in 1998	Early investor and supporter of Google	Founder of Sherpalo Ventures
Robin L. Washington	Board member	Not specified	Since April 2019	Financial expertise in biotech	Former CFO of Gilead Sciences

How to invest in YouTube

YouTube is owned by Google, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, so the best way to invest money in YouTube is to invest in Alphabet. Here is how you can do that.

Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.

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FAQ

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Goldman Sachs Group, and PayPal. The Motley Fool recommends BlackRock and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short December 2025 $75 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.