Cargill is privately owned, and the company is controlled mainly by the Cargill and MacMillan families. Publicly available sources say those families hold about 88% of the company, with the rest held by employees and other insiders.

Quick scoop

  • Cargill is not a public company.
  • The Cargill and MacMillan families are the principal owners.
  • The ownership has stayed in family hands for generations, which is why Cargill remains one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S.

In plain English

If you’re asking “who owns Cargill?” the short answer is: the descendants of the founders, especially the Cargill and MacMillan families.

What that means

  • No outside shareholders control it like a normal public stock company.
  • The family ownership gives Cargill a long-term, private structure instead of quarterly market pressure.

If you want, I can also give you a simple family-tree style breakdown of the main Cargill owners.