You’ve probably seen the white cups with the bold, lowercase letters in basically every grocery store from Maine to California. Maybe you’ve even heard the legendary story of the Turkish immigrant who bought a crumbling Kraft factory with a small business loan and changed the way Americans eat breakfast forever. But when it comes to the question of who owns Chobani Inc, the answer is actually a lot more interesting than just a single name on a deed.
Honestly, Chobani is a bit of a unicorn in the corporate world. While most brands that hit $3 billion in annual revenue rush to Wall Street to ring the opening bell, Chobani has stayed stubbornly, fiercely private.
As of early 2026, the man at the center of it all, Hamdi Ulukaya, remains the majority owner and the undisputed captain of the ship. But he isn't the only one with a seat at the table. From a massive Canadian pension fund to the thousands of people actually wearing hairnets and operating the yogurt strainers, the ownership structure of Chobani is a complex web of "anti-CEO" philosophy and high-stakes private equity exits.
The Man in Charge: Hamdi Ulukaya’s Massive Stake
Hamdi Ulukaya is the founder, Chairman, and CEO. He’s also the guy who still holds the lion's share of the company. Recent valuations have pegged Chobani at a staggering $20 billion, especially after a 2025 funding round that saw the company raise roughly $650 million to fuel its massive expansion into New York and Idaho.
Because Chobani is private, we don't have a public ticker symbol to check his exact percentage every day. However, it’s widely understood that Ulukaya owns the vast majority of the equity. This control is what allows him to make moves that would make a typical public company board of directors have a collective heart attack—like hiring hundreds of refugees or giving away ownership to his staff.
Ulukaya’s net worth has ballooned alongside the company’s success. By the start of 2026, he was ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune estimated around $14.5 billion. He’s not just a "yogurt king"; he’s a massive player in the global dairy economy who has successfully fended off acquisition attempts from giants like PepsiCo.
The Power Shift: TPG Capital Out, HOOPP In
For a while, there was a lot of chatter about private equity firm TPG Capital. Back in 2014, when Chobani was facing some growing pains and needed cash fast, TPG swooped in with a $750 million investment. For years, they held a 20% stake and a significant amount of leverage.
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That changed in 2018.
In a move that caught many industry analysts off guard, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) bought out TPG’s entire minority stake.
Why does a Canadian pension fund for healthcare workers own 20% of an American yogurt company?
Basically, they like steady, long-term growth. Unlike private equity firms that usually want to flip a company for a profit in three to five years, a pension fund like HOOPP is playing the long game. They currently hold that 20% equity stake and even have a seat on the board. This partnership has given Ulukaya the breathing room to keep the company private without the constant pressure to "exit" that typically comes with venture capital.
The "Chobani Shares" Program: 2,000+ Partners
The most famous part of the Chobani ownership story happened in 2016. Ulukaya walked onto the factory floors and handed out white envelopes to his 2,000+ full-time employees. Inside weren't just bonuses—they were grants for a 10% ownership stake in the company.
This wasn't a standard ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) where you buy in over decades. It was a gift.
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- How it works: When the company eventually goes public or is sold, those shares convert into cold, hard cash.
- The Valuation Factor: Because the company’s value has soared from roughly $3 billion in 2016 to $20 billion in 2026, some of those original "partners" on the factory floor are sitting on stakes worth over $1 million.
- The Impact: This program covers everyone from the corporate suits in Manhattan to the folks loading crates in New Berlin, NY.
Ulukaya often says, "We used to work together. Now we are partners." It sounds like marketing fluff, but legally, those 2,000+ employees are actual stakeholders in the company's future value.
Whatever Happened to the Chobani IPO?
If you've been following the business news, you've probably seen "Chobani IPO" headlines at least a dozen times.
The company officially filed for an IPO in 2021 with a target valuation of $10 billion. Then the market got weird. Inflation spiked, tech stocks tumbled, and Chobani pulled the plug on the filing in 2022.
Since then, they’ve been "kinda-sorta" on the verge of going public every single year. In 2025, the rumors heated up again when they raised that $650 million in private capital. While they haven't pulled the trigger on the Nasdaq yet, the corporate restructuring they’ve undergone suggests they are ready to move the moment the market looks friendly.
For now, staying private lets them build $1.2 billion state-of-the-art factories in Rome, New York, without having to explain the short-term dip in profits to a bunch of day traders.
What Most People Get Wrong About Chobani Ownership
There’s a common misconception that Chobani is owned by a massive conglomerate like Nestlé or Danone. It's an easy mistake to make because Chobani has a 20% market share in the U.S.—it feels like a corporate behemoth.
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In reality, Danone is their biggest rival, not their parent company.
Another weird rumor that pops up is that the company is "foreign-owned." While Ulukaya is a Turkish-born Kurd, Chobani is a quintessentially American company, headquartered in New Berlin, New York, and it remains independent.
The Bottom Line on Who Owns Chobani Inc
When you strip away the branding and the Greek yogurt hype, Chobani is a privately held corporation with a very concentrated ownership structure.
- Hamdi Ulukaya owns the vast majority (the "Lion's Share").
- HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) owns a 20% minority stake.
- The Employees collectively hold rights to 10% of the company's value upon a "liquidity event" (a sale or IPO).
If you’re looking to invest in Chobani yourself, you're basically out of luck until they finally decide to go through with that IPO. Until then, the best way to "own" a piece of the company is to get a job at one of their plants in Idaho or New York.
To keep an eye on when this might change, you should monitor the SEC's EDGAR database for a "Form S-1" filing under the name Chobani Inc. That will be the first official signal that the ownership is finally opening up to the public. You can also track the company's expansion into non-dairy sectors like oat milk and coffee creamers, as these diverse revenue streams are exactly what they’ll use to pitch themselves to investors when the time comes.