Companies Owned by Walmart (2026)

What companies and brands does Walmart actually own in 2026?

Walmart's ownership map splits into three honest buckets. First, there are the businesses it owns outright: the Sam's Club warehouse division and, since December 2024, the television maker Vizio. Second, there are businesses it controls through a majority stake rather than full ownership: India's Flipkart e-commerce platform and the payments app PhonePe. Third, there is a long bench of private-label brands— Great Value, Equate, Mainstays, Onn, Ozark Trail, George, Sam's Choice, Member's Mark, and the newer Bettergoods line — that are owned labels rather than separate companies.

The distinction between those buckets matters, because a sloppy list treats a majority stake the same as outright ownership and a store-brand label the same as a subsidiary. They are not the same. Flipkart and PhonePe are majority-owned, so the exact percentages move over time. Great Value is a labeling program across goods made by many manufacturers, not a company Walmart bought. Getting these categories right is the difference between an accurate page and a misleading one.

What ties everything together is the corporate structure underneath. Walmart Inc. is itself a Delaware corporation, and the group holds its operating, property, and real-estate entities through subsidiaries — a number of them organized in Delaware. That is the thread this page pulls on: the same legal vehicle the world's largest retailer uses to sit at the top of its empire is available, in single-entity form, to a founder forming their first company. The mechanics scale down cleanly to a single Delaware LLC.

Is Walmart a Delaware company or an Arkansas company?

It is both, depending on which question you ask. Walmart's home, culture, and headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Sam Walton built the company. But the legal parent, Walmart Inc., is incorporated in Delaware— it has been a Delaware corporation since October 1969. So when people ask "where is Walmart incorporated," the answer is Delaware, even though "where is Walmart based" is Arkansas.

This makes Walmart a cleaner example than some other giants. Johnson & Johnson, for instance, kept its parent incorporated in New Jersey and only uses Delaware one level down. Walmart uses Delaware at the very top andorganizes operating and real-estate subsidiaries beneath it. Its SEC significant-subsidiaries exhibit lists entities such as Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust, Sam's West, Inc., and Sam's East, Inc. — a reminder that a retailer of this size runs many separate legal entities, not one monolithic company.

For a founder, the takeaway is direct: when you choose Delaware, you are choosing the exact state of incorporation that Walmart's top-level parent chose. You are not getting a lesser version of the jurisdiction — you are using the same one, just with a single entity instead of a stack of them. The Delaware LLC formation process gives you that footing directly.

Does Walmart own Sam's Club and Member's Mark?

Yes to both, and they are worth treating as one answer because Member's Mark lives inside Sam's Club. Sam's Club is a wholly owned membership-warehouse division of Walmart, launched in 1983 and operated ever since under the parent company. It is not a separately traded business. In Walmart's SEC filings the club operations show up through entities such as Sam's West, Inc. and Sam's East, Inc., which appear on the company's significant-subsidiaries list.

Member's Markis the flagship private label of Sam's Club, spanning groceries, household goods, and more. Because Sam's Club is wholly owned by Walmart, Member's Mark is a Walmart-owned brand by extension. This is a good illustration of the brand-versus-entity distinction: Member's Mark is a label, Sam's Club is a division, and Walmart Inc. is the Delaware-incorporated parent that owns both.

The structural point underneath is the same one a founder cares about. A large group keeps separate legal entities — store-operating companies, property companies, and business trusts — so that the obligations of one do not automatically reach the assets of another. That liability separation is the headline reason most founders form an entity in the first place, and a single Delaware LLC delivers it without the dozens of subsidiaries a retailer needs.

Did Walmart really acquire Vizio, and what does that mean?

Yes. Walmart completed its acquisition of Vizio in December 2024 in a deal valued at roughly $2.3 billion, turning the television and smart-TV-software maker into a wholly owned subsidiary. Vizio's Class A shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as part of the close. Walmart's stated rationale was less about selling more TVs and more about Vizio's SmartCast operating system, which strengthens Walmart Connect, the company's advertising business.

Vizio is reported within the Walmart US segment and continues to operate under its own brand and leadership inside the group. That is the standard pattern for an acquisition: the target survives as a subsidiary rather than being dissolved into the parent. The same structural idea applies all the way down the size ladder — when any company acquires another, it typically holds the target as a separate legal entity, frequently a Delaware one, so the books, liabilities, and ownership stay clean.

For a founder studying this, Vizio is a useful lesson in how ownership actually works. A "Walmart-owned" company can keep its own name, its own CEO, and its own product line while still being wholly owned. The legal entity is what changed hands, not the storefront. When you form your own Delaware LLC, you are creating exactly that kind of standalone legal entity — the basic building block that acquisitions are assembled from.

Does Walmart own Flipkart and PhonePe in India?

Walmart is the majority shareholderof both, which is a more precise claim than "owns." In 2018 Walmart bought roughly 77% of Flipkart, India's large e-commerce platform, in what was then its biggest-ever overseas investment, and it later added to that stake. PhonePe, the digital-payments app, grew up inside Flipkart and completed a full ownership separation from Flipkart in December 2022. After that separation, Walmart remained the majority shareholder of both groups as distinct businesses.

The reason to hedge here is honesty about the numbers. Majority stakes are not the same as wholly owned subsidiaries, and the exact percentages shift as new investors come in or existing ones exit. Both businesses have been widely reported as preparing for public listings — Flipkart has been tied to an anticipated IPO at a multi-billion-dollar valuation, and PhonePe has likewise been reported as moving toward a listing — each of which would change the ownership picture again. Treat any such IPO timeline as a reported plan rather than a settled fact, and confirm the current status before relying on it. The responsible way to describe Flipkart and PhonePe is "Walmart-controlled majority stakes," not "100% Walmart-owned."

The structural lesson is that ownership comes in degrees. A multinational can fully own one business (Vizio), majority-control another (Flipkart), and merely license a label across third-party manufacturers (Great Value), all under the same parent. A founder's situation is far simpler: you usually own 100% of one Delaware LLC, which is exactly why the structure is so clean to run and to explain to a bank.

What private-label brands does Walmart own?

Beyond the named companies, Walmart owns a deep bench of private-label brands — these are owned labels, not separate businesses you could buy shares in, but they are genuinely Walmart's. The headline names include:

• Great Value — the flagship grocery label (a labeling program across many manufacturers, not a single factory).
• Equate — health, pharmacy, and beauty products.
• Mainstays — home and household essentials.
• Onn — electronics and tech accessories.
• Ozark Trail — camping and outdoor gear.
• George — apparel.
• Sam's Choice — premium-tier grocery items.
• Member's Mark— the Sam's Club flagship private label.
• Bettergoods — an elevated grocery private brand launched in 2024.
• Allswell — a direct-to-consumer mattress and bedding brand.

Others in the same family include Spring Valley (vitamins), Parent's Choice (baby products), and Ol' Roy (pet food). The important nuance, again, is the difference between a brand and a company. Great Value goods are manufactured by a range of suppliers and simply carry Walmart's label; the brand is owned, the factories are not. Mixing up "owns the brand" with "owns the manufacturer" is one of the most common errors in lists like this, so it is worth stating plainly.

Which brands are commonly mistaken as owned by Walmart but are NOT?

This is where most ownership lists go wrong, so it deserves its own section. Around 2017 Walmart went on an e-commerce buying spree, then spent the following years selling much of it off. The brands below are frequently still attributed to Walmart and are not part of it today.

The pattern is clear: ownership changes, and an active company like Walmart both buys and sells brands constantly. The safe rule when listing what Walmart owns is to verify current status rather than assume a past acquisition is still in the portfolio. A 2017 purchase tells you nothing reliable about 2026 ownership, which is exactly why dates and divestitures have to be checked before a brand goes on the list.

Why do giant companies hold their businesses through Delaware entities?

The reason a retailer the size of Walmart organizes its parent and many of its subsidiaries in Delaware is not glamour — it is predictability. Delaware has the most developed body of corporate case law in the United States and a dedicated business court, the Court of Chancery, that hears corporate disputes without juries and produces detailed, citable rulings. When a company is constantly raising money, signing major contracts, and acquiring other businesses, that legal certainty reduces risk at every step.

A second reason is structural cleanliness. Walmart runs separate store-operating companies, property companies, and real-estate business trusts so that the liabilities of one piece do not automatically reach the assets of another. When the group buys a company like Vizio, it can hold the acquired business as its own subsidiary instead of merging it messily into the parent. This is the everyday plumbing of corporate America, and Delaware is where a great deal of that plumbing is installed.

A third reason is acquisition mechanics. Because Delaware merger law is so well understood, lawyers on both sides of a deal can model exactly how a transaction will work before signing. The same predictability that helps Walmart close a multibillion-dollar acquisition also helps a small company take on an investor, add a co-founder, or sell the business later, because the rules everyone is operating under are settled and tested. The encouraging part for a founder is that none of this requires scale: the same Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, the same Division of Corporations, and the same Court of Chancery stand behind a one-member Delaware LLCas behind a Fortune 1 retailer's subsidiary.

How does a single founder use the same Delaware vehicle Walmart uses?

You do not need a holding company, a board, or a stack of entities. For almost every founder, the right starting structure is one Delaware LLC. It gives you a recognized US legal identity, a wall between your business and your personal assets, and a clean base from which to open banking and accept payments. The formation route is the same Delaware LLC formation path, adapted so it works even if you have no US Social Security Number, visa, or address.

In practice the sequence is short. You confirm an available name, we file the Certificate of Formation with a Delaware registered agent included, and your LLC legally exists in about 48 hours. From there you apply for an EIN for your Delaware LLC, which takes 2 to 4 weeks for applicants without an SSN, and then you move on to banking and payments. The full walkthrough lives on our how it works page.

The contrast with Walmart is the point. A retailer runs hundreds of entities because it operates hundreds of distinct businesses, stores, and properties across the world. You run one because you have one. Same state, same legal framework, vastly simpler footprint — and a setup you can complete remotely from anywhere. There is no requirement to ever graduate into a holding-company structure; most founders run a single LLC for the life of the business and never need a second entity. The layered-subsidiary model Walmart uses is a response to complexity that a one-business founder simply does not have.

Once your LLC is formed and the EIN is issued, the practical next step is US banking. You can open a US business bank account in the company's name even as a non-resident: fintech banks such as Mercury, Relay, and Wise onboard founders entirely online, and approval typically lands within 1 to 5 business days after the EIN is in hand. Approval is always the bank's own decision, never ours, so we help you present a clean application and apply to more than one provider if the first does not work out. Our Delaware LLC banking guide walks through the options in detail.

If you sell online, you will likely also want Stripeto accept card payments. Stripe approval is the provider's decision and is not guaranteed either; a clear business description and consistent details across your formation documents, EIN letter, and application are what help a review go smoothly. We do not promise approval from any bank or processor — what we commit to is helping you apply correctly and trying alternatives if a first application is declined, because each provider reviews independently and a decline from one is not a decline from all.

What does this cost, in year one and year two?

Our service is a single flat fee of $397, and the Delaware state filing fee is already included — there is no separate state charge bolted on at checkout. That covers the Certificate of Formation, the EIN application, a registered agent for year one, your operating agreement, and US bank and Stripe application support. The table below lays out the recurring picture so there are no surprises in year two.

The one ongoing state obligation for a Delaware LLC is the flat $300 franchise tax, due June 1 starting the year after you form. There is no annual report for an LLC. Miss the June 1 deadline and Delaware adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest per month, and the LLC loses good standing — which is exactly why we track the date for you. The full breakdown is on our Delaware LLC cost page and our Delaware franchise tax guide.

It is worth clearing up one of the most common points of confusion here, because it directly involves the difference between you and a company like Walmart. Delaware calculates corporate franchise tax using two methods — the authorized shares method and the assumed par value capital method — and those calculations can produce very large bills. They apply only to Delaware corporations, the kind of entity Walmart Inc. is. They do not apply to LLCs at all. A Delaware LLC pays a single flat amount: $300 per year, full stop, with no share-based math and no annual report to file. So while Walmart keeps tax teams busy working through corporate franchise-tax methods, your single LLC faces one predictable number each June.

If you ever did want a corporation instead — for example to raise venture capital from US investors who expect a C-Corp — the structure and its heavier compliance, including the corporate franchise-tax methods and an annual report, are covered on our Delaware C-Corp page. For the wider federal and state tax picture of running an LLC, including how a single-member LLC is treated as a pass-through by default, see our Delaware LLC taxes overview. Whether a non-resident owner ultimately owes US income tax is a fact-specific question that turns on the nature of the business and any applicable tax treaty, so it is best confirmed with a qualified CPA rather than assumed from a general rule.

What do non-resident founders need to know to copy this structure?

You can form and own a Delaware LLC from outside the United States with no US Social Security Number, no ITIN, no visa, and no US address. That is the whole premise of our service, and it is laid out in full on our Delaware LLC for non-residents guide. The EIN is obtained with Form SS-4, which the IRS processes by fax or mail for non-resident applicants — the reason it takes 2 to 4 weeks rather than minutes.

The one federal filing most non-resident single-member owners must not miss is Form 5472. If a non-US person owns 25% or more of a single-member Delaware LLC treated as a disregarded entity, the IRS requires Form 5472 each year, attached to a pro forma Form 1120, reporting transactions between you and your LLC. The penalty for failing to file is $25,000 under IRC 6038A, and the return is due April 15 (extendable with Form 7004). We track this for the founders we work with; the detail is in our Form 5472 for Delaware LLCs guide.

On beneficial-ownership reporting, the rules changed meaningfully in 2025, and it is worth being careful about how you describe them. A FinCEN interim final rule issued in March 2025 removed the BOI reporting obligation for US-formed domestic reporting companies, leaving only certain foreign reporting companies registered to do business in the US within scope. That is a significant shift from the framework many older guides describe, and the area is still evolving. The responsible approach is to confirm the current FinCEN position at the source before relying on any summary, rather than treating previously published deadlines as if they remain in force.

One more practical note for sellers: if you accept card payments through a processor, the 1099-K reporting threshold reverted to more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions after the OBBBA repealed the proposed $600 trigger. That affects what gets reported to the IRS on your behalf, not whether income is taxable, so keep clean records regardless of whether a 1099-K is issued.

How does forming one LLC compare to the alternatives?

A single Delaware LLC is the right starting point for most founders, but it is worth seeing it next to the other paths. The comparison below is a quick orientation, not legal advice — confirm the right structure with an advisor before deciding.

Notice that the holding-company row is the Walmart pattern in miniature: it makes sense precisely when you have many separate businesses, properties, and acquisitions to keep apart, each with its own liabilities, contracts, and possible buyers. That is the situation a global retailer lives in every day, and it is why a parent like Walmart Inc. sits over store companies, property companies, and acquired brands like Vizio. For a founder with one business, that same machinery is pure unnecessary cost — more filings, more annual franchise taxes, more bookkeeping, and no added protection you would actually use.

So start with one Delaware LLC. It gives you the recognized US identity, the liability separation, and the clean banking base that the giants get from their Delaware structure, without the apparatus they carry to manage hundreds of entities. If your plans later call for outside investment, our Delaware C-Corp guide explains when the corporate route earns its extra weight, and our how it workspage shows the full path from name check to a funded account. Either way, you can begin the whole process remotely, today, from anywhere in the world — the same Delaware framework Walmart's parent relies on, available to you for a flat $397 with the state filing fee included.

Many of these companies chose Delaware for the same reasons founders do today — the Court of Chancery, flexible LLC statutes, and strong privacy protections. Form your Delaware LLC for $397, all-inclusive, in 48 hours. Form your Delaware LLC → | Read the complete Delaware LLC guide →