Top Companies Owned by DuPont

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DuPont’s best-known acquisitions are Danisco, a Danish food-ingredients and enzyme maker it bought in 2011 for $6.3 billion, and Pioneer, the Iowa seed company it bought in 1999 for $7.7 billion. Neither one belongs to DuPont today. Pioneer left with Corteva when DowDuPont split in 2019, and Danisco went to International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) in 2021 when DuPont combined its nutrition and biosciences division with that company. A list of companies DuPont owns is therefore mostly a history of what it once built or bought and where those businesses ended up after two centuries of acquisitions, spin-offs and mergers.

DuPont’s landmark acquisitions

DuPont has grown through acquisitions for much of its history and has regularly sold or spun off businesses that no longer fit its strategy. Its two largest deals both brought in businesses that later left the company in a restructuring.

1. Danisco

• Acquired: 2011
• Purchase price: $6.3 billion

Danisco A/S was a Danish biotech and food-ingredients company established in 1989. It produced specialty ingredients such as emulsifiers and other texture enablers, cultures and sweeteners. Its core strength was enzymes, which food makers use to preserve products and which are also used in biofuel production.

Under DuPont ownership the business operated as DuPont Danisco. It was one of the largest producers of guar gum, a thickening agent, and carrageenan, a gelling agent that gives texture and stability to dairy desserts, processed cheeses and jellies. The company has said its ingredients go into much of the world’s ice cream. It also developed natural enzymes and antioxidants that extend the shelf life of foods.

DuPont Danisco became part of DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences division. In February 2021, DuPont combined that division with IFF in a transaction that valued the division at $26.2 billion. IFF still uses the Danisco brand, but DuPont Danisco no longer exists as a separate company, and the business is no longer part of DuPont.

2. Pioneer

• Acquired: 1999
• Purchase price: $7.7 billion

Pioneer was founded in 1926 and grew into a major U.S. producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture. The company is based in Iowa and is one of the largest developers of genetically modified crops, with a focus on traits that give plants resistance to insects or herbicides.

Pioneer produces, markets and sells hybrid seed corn, soybeans, sorghum, sunflower, cotton, alfalfa, canola, rice, wheat and other seeds in more than 125 countries.

After the Dow merger, Pioneer was placed in the combined company’s agriculture division, Corteva Agriscience. When Corteva separated from DowDuPont in June 2019, Pioneer went with it and remains one of Corteva’s main seed brands.

Where DuPont’s major businesses are now

Several businesses that DuPont founded, bought or controlled now belong to other companies. The table traces the largest of them.

From gunpowder mill to DowDuPont and back

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1802. He had left France during the French Revolution and built a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. For its first century the company was largely an explosives maker, and for much of its history the du Pont family owned and ran it.

In the 20th century DuPont moved into chemistry and materials science. Its labs produced some of the best-known materials of the era: nylon in the 1930s, Teflon (discovered in 1938), and later Dacron, Orlon, Mylar, Lycra and Kevlar. These materials turned DuPont from a powder company into one of the largest chemical companies in the world.

The modern structure dates from 2017. DuPont and Dow Chemical merged in August of that year to form DowDuPont, with a plan to break the combined business into three companies focused on materials, agriculture and specialty products. The split happened in 2019:

1. Dow separated first, in April 2019, as the materials science company.
2. Corteva separated in June 2019, taking the agricultural chemicals and seed businesses, including Pioneer.
3. DuPont remained as the specialty products company. The DowDuPont parent took the name DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

One detail confuses many readers. The original legal entity, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, became a subsidiary of Corteva in the split. The company that trades today as DuPont (DD) is the renamed DowDuPont parent. It carries the DuPont name and brands, but it is not the same corporate entity founded in 1802.

What DuPont makes

DuPont began as a gunpowder manufacturer and now serves a wide range of industries:

• aerospace and automotive
• building and construction
• electronics and energy
• medical and health care
• manufacturing and packaging
• water purification and protection

Products sold under the DuPont name include adhesives, construction materials, fabrics, medical device materials, personal protective equipment and materials for solar energy. In its 2025 Sustainability Report, DuPont reported $12.4 billion in net sales and about 24,000 employees.

A famous DuPont invention is not always a current DuPont product. Teflon was invented at DuPont, but the brand moved to Chemours in 2015, and Lycra has belonged to other owners since 2004. Before assuming DuPont still sells one of its historic brands, check which company owns it now.

Who owns DuPont, and the du Pont family’s role

DuPont is a publicly traded company listed under the ticker DD, so its owners are its shareholders. The family that founded it controlled the business for generations, but it went public long ago and the family no longer runs it.

The family still has a visible link to the company. In 2019, Eleuthère I. du Pont, a descendant of the founder and an heir to the family fortune, was appointed to DuPont’s board of directors. A board seat gives him a voice in governance alongside the other directors. It does not amount to family control.

The family’s historical influence went well beyond DuPont. Pierre S. du Pont led the company’s large investment in General Motors after World War I and served as GM’s president for a period. The DuPont stake in GM ended after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1957 that the holding violated antitrust law, and DuPont was ordered to divest.

Where DuPont is based

DuPont is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, close to where the original powder mill stood. The company operates far beyond Delaware: it has offices, manufacturing sites and other business units in about 50 countries.

What is the DuPont analysis?

The DuPont analysis is a financial tool named after the company, not a business it owns. F. Donaldson Brown, a DuPont employee, developed it in 1914. He combined earnings, investment and working capital into a single measure of return on investment, which let managers see which operating factors drove the result. DuPont used the method internally at first. It later spread to General Motors, where Brown also worked, and from there became a standard tool for analysts and investors.

The common modern version breaks return on equity (ROE) into three parts:

ROE = net profit margin × asset turnover × equity multiplier

• Net profit margin = net income ÷ revenue (how much profit each dollar of sales produces)
• Asset turnover = revenue ÷ total assets (how efficiently assets generate sales)
• Equity multiplier = total assets ÷ shareholders’ equity (how much the company relies on debt to fund its assets)

Hypothetical example: a company has $1,000 million in revenue, $80 million in net income, $2,000 million in assets and $800 million in equity. Its margin is 8%, its asset turnover is 0.5 and its equity multiplier is 2.5. Multiplying these gives an ROE of 10%, which matches $80 million ÷ $800 million. The breakdown shows what produces that return. Two companies can report the same 10% ROE, one through high margins and the other through heavy borrowing, and the equity multiplier makes that difference visible.

The formula uses balance sheet figures from a single date. For a period-based analysis, analysts often average assets and equity across the start and end of the period. That assumption changes the result, so state it whenever comparing companies.

The Bottom Line

For investors and readers tracing DuPont's brands, most of its famous businesses now belong to other companies. Pioneer sits inside Corteva, IFF uses the Danisco name, Chemours holds Teflon and Lycra has had other owners since 2004. The company trading today as DuPont (DD) is the renamed DowDuPont parent focused on specialty products, so check the current owner before assuming DuPont still sells a historic brand.