Eric Schmidt is stepping down as executive chairman of Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Schmidt, who first joined Google as chief executive in 2001 and became its executive chairman 10 years later, will remain on the board as a technical adviser on science and technology issues.
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"Larry, Sergey, Sundar and I all believe that the time is right in Alphabet's evolution for this transition," Schmidt said in a statement.
"The Alphabet structure is working well, and Google and the Other Bets are thriving. In recent years, I've been spending a lot of my time on science and technology issues, and philanthropy, and I plan to expand that work."
Schmidt has played a key role in growing Google from a small US start-up into a global giant and helped lead its restructuring to become Alphabet in 2015.
When he first joined Google, it had a several hundred employees. It now has more than 70,000 employees under parent company Alphabet.
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Google was founded as an internet search company in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin but has since expanded beyond that to include tech gadgets, Android, Chrome and YouTube.
Alphabet expects to appoint a new non-executive chairman at its next meeting in January.