Healthcare · Profile from Healthcare Research Companion
Google Health and Verily (Alphabet's healthcare businesses)
Alphabet has spent more than a decade, and several billion dollars, trying to turn the world's best search, data and AI engineering into a healthcare business. The pattern has been brilliant research and repeated reorganisation. Its moves include DeepMind's Streams app with the Royal Free (found in 2017 to have breached UK data law), a unified Google Health division (2018–21) that was dissolved after three years, Project Nightingale with Ascension, the $2.1bn Fitbit purchase, landmark medical AI papers (diabetic retinopathy, mammography, Med-PaLM, AMIE), and Verily, the life-sciences moonshot spun out of Google X. Verily raised ~$3.5bn+, cycled through contact lenses, surgical robots, insurance and devices, and in March 2026 became an independent company with Alphabet as a minority investor. Google's durable health businesses today are cloud and AI infrastructure for health systems and pharma, medical foundation models, and the consumer Google Health app (formerly Fitbit).
At a glance
- Founded
- Google health efforts from 2008 (Google Health personal record, closed 2011–12); Google Life Sciences inside Google X ~2013, renamed Verily 7 Dec 2015 as an Alphabet "Other Bet"; DeepMind (acquired January 2014) launched DeepMind Health February 2016; unified Google Health division formed 2018 under David Feinberg; dissolved August 2021
- Key people
- Sundar Pichai (Alphabet CEO); Jeff Dean (Google Research, oversaw 2021 split); Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman (DeepMind co-founders; Suleyman led DeepMind Health); David Feinberg (Google Health head 2019–21, then Cerner/Oracle Health); Karen DeSalvo (chief health officer 2019–Aug 2025); Michael Howell (chief health officer from 2025); Greg Corrado (Health AI); Andy Conrad (Verily CEO 2015–Jan 2023); Stephen Gillett (Verily CEO from Jan 2023, chairman and CEO in 2026)
- Headquarters
- Google: Mountain View, California. Verily: South San Francisco until August 2024, then Dallas, Texas
- Ownership / structure
- Google health work sits inside Google Research, Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Fitbit/Pixel devices and Search. Verily Health Inc. converted from an LLC to a corporation in March 2026; Alphabet is a significant minority investor after a $300m round led by Series X Capital (19 March 2026). Isomorphic Labs (2021) and Calico (2013) are separate Alphabet bets
- Segment and buyer
- Health IT, AI and data (cloud, APIs, models) sold to health systems, payers and pharma; consumer wearables and apps; Verily: precision-health data platforms, research and clinical-trial services, chronic-disease programmes sold to pharma, employers, payers and health systems
- Scale
- Fitbit purchase $2.1bn (closed 14 January 2021). Verily 2022 revenue ~$559m with an operating loss of ~$568m (reported); ~1,100 employees in 2023 (reported). Google Cloud healthcare customers include Mayo Clinic (10-year deal, 10 Sep 2019), HCA Healthcare (26 May 2021) and many others
- Capital
- Verily external funding ~$3.5bn+ in total (sources range ~$3.5–3.8bn): Temasek ~$800m (2017), Silver Lake-led $1bn (January 2019), ~$700m (December 2020), ~$1bn Alphabet-led (September 2022), $300m (March 2026). DeepMind acquired for ~£400m (~$500m+, reported, 2014)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Verily spin-out and moonshots (contact lens ended 2018); DeepMind Streams and the Royal Free data ruling (2015–17); diabetic-retinopathy AI and its field problems (2016–20); Google Health formed and DeepMind Health absorbed (2018); Project Nightingale with Ascension (2019); Fitbit acquisition (2019–21); Google Health dissolved (2021); Med-PaLM and medical foundation models (2022–25); Verily's device exit and independence (2025–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Verily Spin Out and Moonshots
Spin-off / launch
2016
DeepMind Streams and Royal Free
Partnership / regulatory finding
2016
Diabetic Retinopathy AI
AI launch / validation
2018
Google Health Formed DeepMind Absorbed
Restructuring
2019
Fitbit Acquisition
Acquisition
2019
Project Nightingale with Ascension
Partnership / privacy controversy
2021
Google Health Dissolved
Restructuring / reversal
2022
Med PaLM and Medical Foundation Models
AI launch
2025
Verily Device Exit and Independence
Restructuring / divestiture / recapitalisation