Google’s parent company, Alphabet, hit a huge milestone this week when its value, based on the price of its Wall Street-listed shares, exceeded $1 trillion (£776 billion).

Its share price has hit a record high of $1,450.16 each. Alphabet now joins its tech rivals Microsoft, Apple and Amazon in surpassing this landmark value. Apple was the first US company to make the trillion mark in 2018, swiftly followed by Amazon later that year and then Mircosoft in April 2019.

When first floated in 2004, Google shares were worth $85 each and following its initial public offering, the firm was valued at $23bn.

Since then the company’s value has risen steadily as it has acquired a larger share of the search market and augmented its advertising revenues from web searches and YouTube.

As well as creating its own Android operating system, it has launched a series of smart products and devices including Google Home and Google Assistant.

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Analysts are already predicting that Google will hit yet another big milestone by reaching the $2tn mark.

This optimism over the company’s future is due to its growth in the Cloud business, which although far behind its rivals has doubled between February 2018 and July 2019.

The company is expecting this growth to continue in the coming year and is pushing vast amounts of resources into its sales force and Google Cloud Health segment.

Alphabet is now the third most valuable US company, behind Apple at $1.4tn and Microsoft at $1.27tn, with Amazon currently worth $931bn.

However, the company has faced a number of issues, some of which are ongoing, with employee rebellions, sex scandals and antitrust probes.

Google was recently accused of “losing its way” by its former head of international relations, who said it put profits before human rights.

Facebook is predicted to be the next trillion-dollar tech company with a $620bn valuation.