Who owns Cheetos?
Cheetos is owned by PepsiCo (the United States, NASDAQ: PEP).[1]
Evidence: PepsiCo, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-03, SEC EDGAR, 3 February 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- PepsiCo, Inc. verified
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, Purchase, New York
- Origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Founded
- 1948
- Category
- Food › Snacks › Salty snacks
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: PEP
- Trademark registrant
- Frito-Lay North America, Inc. (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 2 sources
About Cheetos
Cheetos is a cheese-flavoured corn puff snack created in 1948 by Fritos founder Charles Elmer Doolin, made by extruding cornmeal under pressure so it expands as it leaves the die. Chester Cheetah has been the mascot since 1986, and the brand's regional flavour variants differ sharply between markets.
How often PepsiCo names Cheetos in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named less often than it was three years earlier.
Trademark record for Cheetos
The USPTO record for the Cheetos mark lists Frito-Lay North America, Inc. as the owner of record (serial number 77013298). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[2]
Ownership timeline of Cheetos
Where Cheetos sits in PepsiCo
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full PepsiCo ownership tree →
See the full PepsiCo brand portfolio (29) →
Other brands owned by PepsiCo
PepsiCo controls 29 brands on Brandtree, 16 of them in food.
Also in food
- Doritos (1966)
- Doritos Dinamita (2011)
- Fritos (1932)
- Lay's (1932)
- Quaker (1877)
- Quaker Chewy (1986)
- Ruffles (1958)
- Sabra (1986)
- Siete Foods (2014)
- Smartfood (1985)
- Stacy's (1997)
- SunChips (1991)
- Tostitos (1980)
- Walkers (1948)
- Wotsits (1970)
Founded in the 1940s
- Mountain Dew (1940)
Other brands in salty snacks, and who owns them
PepsiCo has more brands in salty snacks on Brandtree than any other owner: 12 of 100.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Calbee Potato Chips | Calbee | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Boyki | Siantar Top | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Cape Cod | Campbell's | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bonitas | Vitaminka | 🇲🇰 North Macedonia |
| Act II | Conagra Brands | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Diana | Diana | 🇸🇻 El Salvador |
| Chiki | Indofood | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Cuttlefish Peanut Balls | Orion | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
About the owner: PepsiCo
PepsiCo is a publicly listed company headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, founded in 1965. Brandtree records 29 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: PEP.
PepsiCo was formed in 1965 by the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay. Roughly half its revenue comes from snacks rather than drinks, which distinguishes it from its main soft-drink competitor.
🇺🇸 Cheetos and other American brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Cheetos is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Cheetos?
The parent company of Cheetos is PepsiCo, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Cheetos American?
Yes. Cheetos originated in the United States in 1948 and its owner, PepsiCo, is also headquartered in the United States.
Is Cheetos still owned by PepsiCo?
Yes. As of 26 September 2026, Cheetos is still owned by PepsiCo. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] PepsiCo, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-03 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 3 February 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
- [2] USPTO: CHEETOS, serial 77013298, registration 3241177 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 26 September 2026.
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