YouTube is owned by Alphabet (the United States, NASDAQ: GOOGL), which acquired the brand on 13 November 2006.[1][2] YouTube was founded in 2005 in San Bruno, California and was independent until 2006.
YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees and bought by Google the following year for $1.65 billion in stock, a price widely called reckless at the time. It is now the second most visited site in the world and a substantial business in its own right.
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Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, twenty months after the video site was founded and while it still had no meaningful revenue. The price was widely criticised as reckless at the time.
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The parent company of YouTube is Alphabet, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. YouTube originated in the United States in 2005 and its owner, Alphabet, is also headquartered in the United States.
Alphabet completed its acquisition of YouTube on 13 November 2006, after announcing the deal on 9 October 2006.
YouTube was an independent company from its founding in 2005 in San Bruno, California until Alphabet acquired it in 2006.
Yes. As of 6 September 2026, YouTube is still owned by Alphabet. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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