Who Owns Mercedes? The Real Ownership Structure in 2025

Mercedes is owned by Mercedes-Benz Group AG — a publicly traded German corporation listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. No single person owns it. If you've been reading that "Daimler AG owns Mercedes," that answer is outdated. Daimler AG hasn't existed by that name since February 2022.

Why Almost Every Search Result Gets This Wrong

This is probably the most useful thing this article can tell you.

Search "who owns mercedes" right now and you'll find page after page — mostly car dealership websites — confidently stating that Daimler AG is the parent company. 

Some of these pages were written years ago and simply never updated. Others were copy-pasted from a template so many times that nobody noticed the name became obsolete.

Here's what actually happened.

The 2022 Rename — and What Changed With It

In February 2022, Daimler AG renamed itself Mercedes-Benz Group AG. But the rename wasn't the only thing. At the same time, the company spun off its entire commercial vehicle business — trucks, buses — as a separate, independently listed company called Daimler Truck.

What remained under the new Mercedes-Benz Group AG name was the passenger car and van business. Essentially, the company shed its industrial side and reorganized itself around the consumer brand it had always been most famous for.

So "Daimler AG" isn't a company that was acquired or replaced. It's the same legal entity — just operating under a different name, with a narrower scope.

The Full Name Timeline

Understanding why sources contradict each other is a lot easier once you see the name history laid out:

• 1926–1998: Daimler-Benz AG

• 1998–2007: DaimlerChrysler (after acquiring Chrysler)

• 2007–2022: Daimler AG (after selling Chrysler)

• 2022–present: Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Each rename reflects a real structural change in the company. The current name has only been in use since 2022 — which is recent enough that a huge chunk of web content predates it.

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What Mercedes-Benz Group AG Actually Is

Before getting into who owns shares, it's worth separating three things that often get conflated.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG is the publicly listed parent corporation. This is the entity traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker MBG. When people ask who owns Mercedes, this is the company they're asking about.

Mercedes-Benz AG is the operating division — the subsidiary that actually develops, manufactures, and sells the cars and vans. It sits underneath the Group.

Mercedes-Benz is the consumer brand. The three-pointed star. The cars themselves.

Ownership exists at the Group AG level. You can't buy a share in "Mercedes-Benz the car brand" directly. You buy shares in Mercedes-Benz Group AG, the corporation that owns and controls everything beneath it.

At first glance this seems like splitting hairs. But it explains a lot of the confusion in how ownership gets reported — people conflate the brand with the corporation, and end up describing the wrong thing.

Who Owns Mercedes-Benz Group AG?

With roughly one billion shares outstanding, ownership is genuinely spread across the globe. No single shareholder holds a majority. But there are a few named, significant stakeholders worth knowing about — and this is where most content falls completely flat.

The Three Major Named Shareholders

BAIC Group is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer. It currently holds approximately 9.98% of Mercedes-Benz Group AG's voting rights — making it the single largest named individual shareholder. 

This isn't purely a financial play. BAIC and Mercedes have a long-standing manufacturing partnership in China, where a significant portion of Mercedes vehicles are produced for the local market.

Li Shufu is a Chinese billionaire and the founder of Geely Automobile. He holds approximately 9.69% of Mercedes-Benz Group AG through an investment vehicle called Tenaciou3 Prospect Investment Limited. He acquired this stake in 2018. If the name Geely sounds familiar, it's because he also owns Volvo Cars — so this isn't his first major investment in a European automaker.

The Kuwait Investment Authority is Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund. It has held a stake in the company since 1974 — over 50 years. The exact current percentage isn't always broken out in detail in public summaries, but it's a long-standing institutional position that predates most of the corporate name changes above.

Ownership data for these shareholders comes from BaFin — Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority — and Mercedes-Benz Group AG's own investor disclosures. These are publicly reported figures, not estimates.

What ~10% Actually Means

Here's where people sometimes jump to conclusions.

Nearly 10% sounds like a lot. And in the context of a large public company, it is a notable position. But it's not control. To have meaningful unilateral influence over a major corporate decision, you'd generally need a majority stake — something no entity holds here.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG operates under a one-share, one-vote structure. No special share classes. No golden votes. Influence flows through standard shareholder voting — resolutions, board elections, executive pay. In practice, these major stakeholders are influential investors, not the people deciding what the next C-Class looks like.

What's often overlooked is the distinction between BAIC's position and, say, a pure financial investor. BAIC's stake reflects a business relationship as much as a bet on the stock. The two companies manufacture vehicles together in China. The shareholding and the partnership are intertwined. That's different from Li Shufu's position, which is more in the mold of a strategic financial investor.

The Broader Shareholder Base

Beyond the named stakeholders, the remaining shares are held by institutional investors — pension funds, index funds, asset managers — plus retail investors worldwide. No controlling bloc exists among this group. They hold shares; they don't run the company.

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Who Actually Runs Mercedes?

Ownership and management are separate functions. This confuses people more than it should.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG is governed by a Board of Directors, elected by shareholders. The board sets strategic direction and appoints the executive management team. The CEO and their team handle operations — product decisions, market strategy, day-to-day business.

None of the major named shareholders hold executive management roles in the company. The CEO and senior leadership typically hold a small number of shares as part of their compensation. Not enough to constitute meaningful ownership at this scale.

Do BMW and Mercedes Have the Same Owner?

No. They are completely separate, independent public companies with no shared ownership today.

The question comes up because of a historical footnote. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Quandt family held stakes in both Daimler-Benz and BMW. At one point a merger between the two was even considered. That didn't happen, and those cross-holdings ended decades ago.

Today, BMW Group has its own separate shareholder base. The Quandt and Klatten families still hold a significant stake in BMW — but they have no connection to Mercedes-Benz Group AG. The two companies compete directly and are entirely unrelated in terms of ownership.

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Conclusion

Mercedes is owned by Mercedes-Benz Group AG — not Daimler AG, which is an outdated name. It's a public company with no controlling owner. BAIC Group and Li Shufu are the largest named shareholders, each holding under 10%.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Daimler still own Mercedes? 

Daimler AG was renamed Mercedes-Benz Group AG in February 2022. It's the same legal entity under a new name — not a new owner. Sources still saying "Daimler AG" are using outdated information.

Who owns Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta? 

The state of Georgia owns the stadium. Mercedes-Benz holds naming rights through a commercial deal — that's a sponsorship arrangement, not ownership.

Does China own Mercedes? 

No. BAIC Group holds ~9.98% and Li Shufu holds ~9.69% — both are significant but non-controlling stakes. No Chinese entity holds a majority or controlling interest.

Is Mercedes privately owned? 

No. Mercedes-Benz Group AG is publicly traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker MBG. Shares are available to any investor.

Do BMW and Mercedes have the same owner? 

No. They are independent public companies. A historical family connection existed decades ago but has no bearing on current ownership of either company.