On Tuesday, Mr. Page and Sergey Brin, his Google co-founder, said they were stepping down from day-to-day executive roles at Alphabet, Googles parent company. While the move seemed sudden, it was the culmination of a yearslong separation between two of Silicon Valleys most prominent founders and the company they began 21 years ago.
For some time, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin have drawn down their daily involvement in the company, ceding managerial tasks to deputies so they could focus on a variety of projects, including self-driving cars, robotics and life-extension technology.
Mr. Page and Mr. Brin still hold 51 percent of Alphabets voting shares, giving them effective control over the company and Mr. Pichai, if they wish.
In a letter announcing the change, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin compared their 21 years at Google to raising a child, saying now was the time to assume the role of proud parents.
Over the past two decades, they oversaw a company that was central to one of the most consequential periods in the history of business.
Now, as society and government begin to reckon with the fallout of changes wrought by the internet, the two men are walking away, most likely to pursue other projects, funded by the billions of dollars they made at Google and driven by a belief that technology can solve the planets problems.
Its an impossible job now, said Shane Greenstein, a professor at Harvard Business School who has studied Google and its founders.