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Who Owns Whole Foods? Amazon, Since the 2017 Merger at $42.00 a Share
In brief
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon
Whole Foods Market is owned by Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon bought 100% of Whole Foods Market in 2017, after a merger in which Whole Foods survived as a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary. The grocery chain is no longer public, so ordinary investors cannot buy Whole Foods shares directly; they can only get indirect exposure through Amazon stock.
The simple answer is Amazon owns Whole Foods, but control ultimately sits with Amazon's board, executives, and public shareholders.
Who owns Whole Foods today?
Whole Foods Market is owned by Amazon.com, Inc., the Nasdaq-listed company behind Amazon's online marketplace, Prime, AWS, advertising, devices, and physical stores. The clearest legal trail is Amazon's 2017 acquisition filing: Amazon acquired 100% of the outstanding stock of Whole Foods Market, and Whole Foods continued as the surviving corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon sec.gov.
That means Whole Foods has a different ownership profile from an independent grocery chain. Its legal parent is Amazon. Its economic owner is Amazon's shareholder base. Its day-to-day grocery leadership sits inside Amazon's wider stores organization. Amazon announced in 2025 that Jason Buechel would remain CEO of Whole Foods Market while also taking expanded responsibility as Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores, reporting into Amazon's stores leadership aboutamazon.com.
| Layer | Who it is | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Legal owner | Amazon.com, Inc. corporate group | Whole Foods is a wholly owned subsidiary, not a separately traded company. |
| Operator | Whole Foods Market leadership inside Amazon | Stores, supply chain, technology, and grocery strategy are run within Amazon's stores business. |
| Economic owners | Amazon shareholders | Public shareholders own Amazon stock and indirectly own Amazon's Whole Foods business. |
How Amazon bought Whole Foods
Amazon announced the Whole Foods deal in June 2017 and closed it on August 28, 2017. The formal acquisition structure was a merger: Amazon's merger subsidiary merged with and into Whole Foods Market, and Whole Foods continued as the surviving corporation. Amazon's filing states that the company acquired 100% of Whole Foods Market's outstanding stock for cash consideration of about $13.2 billion net of cash acquired, with former Whole Foods shareholders receiving $42.00 per share in cash sec.gov.
The transaction also ended Whole Foods' life as a public company. Before the sale, Whole Foods Market shareholders had a direct vote and direct economic ownership. After the sale, those shareholders were cashed out, and control moved to Amazon. In a separate Whole Foods proxy filing before the merger, the company told shareholders that the deal would make Whole Foods a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon if completed sec.gov.
The acquisition was cleared quickly by U.S. antitrust regulators. The Federal Trade Commission said in August 2017 that it had reviewed whether the deal would substantially lessen competition and decided not to pursue the matter further ftc.gov. Amazon and Whole Foods then said the transaction would close on August 28, 2017, and that Whole Foods would keep its brand, quality standards, Austin headquarters, and operations under the Whole Foods Market name sec.gov.
Whole Foods did not disappear into Amazon; it became Amazon's premium grocery platform.
The corporate structure behind Whole Foods
Whole Foods is best understood as a brand and operating company inside Amazon's consolidated corporate group. Amazon's annual report says references to "Amazon.com," "we," and "our" include Amazon.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries unless the context says otherwise sec.gov. That matters because Amazon does not present Whole Foods as a standalone public reporting segment with its own audited revenue, operating profit, or shareholder base.
There is also a difference between a legal ownership tree and an investor-facing segment. Amazon's Exhibit 21.1 for 2025 lists "significant subsidiaries," all shown as 100% owned, but it is not a complete map of every operating brand or internal entity in the Amazon group sec.gov. For a reader asking who owns Whole Foods, the practical answer remains Amazon; the more precise answer is that Whole Foods Market sits inside Amazon's wholly owned subsidiary structure.
Legal control
Owner: Amazon acquired 100% of Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods survived the merger as an Amazon-owned subsidiary, so it no longer has separate public shareholders.
Operating control
Operator: Whole Foods is run by grocery leadership inside Amazon, with Jason Buechel serving as CEO of Whole Foods Market and VP of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores.
Whole Foods still has a distinct market position. The company says it began with one store in Austin, Texas and now has more than 500 stores in North America and the United Kingdom wholefoodsmarket.com. Amazon's 2025 leadership update said Whole Foods had expanded to over 535 locations and had achieved record sales growth under Buechel's time as CEO aboutamazon.com.
Money and control at Whole Foods
Amazon does not break out Whole Foods revenue as a separate line item. Instead, Whole Foods activity appears mainly within Amazon's broader retail reporting. Amazon's 2025 Form 10-K reported $22.561 billion of "physical stores" net sales in 2025, but the same note explains that this line includes product sales where customers physically select items in a store; orders placed online for delivery or pickup from physical stores are included in "Online stores" sec.gov. In other words, the physical-stores number is useful context, but it is not the same as Whole Foods total revenue.
Control of Amazon itself is also dispersed. Amazon's 2026 proxy statement listed 10,751,236,247 common shares outstanding as of February 24, 2026, and showed Jeff Bezos with 8.8%, Vanguard with 7.2%, and BlackRock with 5.9% of the class s2.q4cdn.com. Amazon's bylaws state that each outstanding share entitled to vote gets one vote on each issue submitted to stockholders, with no cumulative voting for directors s2.q4cdn.com. Based on those disclosed holdings, no single shareholder has majority voting control of Amazon.
| Control point | 2025 or latest disclosed figure | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Whole Foods ownership | 100% acquired by Amazon | Whole Foods is not independently listed and has no separate public float. |
| Amazon physical stores net sales | $22.561 billion in 2025 | This includes physical store purchases, but not all online grocery orders tied to stores. |
| Largest disclosed Amazon holder | Jeff Bezos, 8.8% | Bezos remains influential, but he does not control a majority of Amazon votes. |
| Institutional holders | Vanguard 7.2%; BlackRock 5.9% | Large asset managers are important shareholders, but their holdings are also below control level. |
What Amazon ownership means for shoppers and suppliers
For shoppers, Amazon ownership has meant deeper integration between Whole Foods and Amazon's broader consumer ecosystem. When the deal closed, Amazon said Prime would become the customer rewards program at Whole Foods after technical integration, with special savings and in-store benefits for Prime members sec.gov. It also said Whole Foods private-label products would become available through Amazon channels such as Amazon.com and AmazonFresh sec.gov.
For suppliers, Amazon ownership creates a larger and more data-driven retail partner. Whole Foods remains known for natural and organic standards, while Amazon brings logistics, online ordering, advertising, membership, and technology infrastructure. That combination can benefit brands that fit Whole Foods' standards and Amazon's systems, but it can also raise the bar on operational discipline, availability, pricing, packaging, and digital performance.
For Amazon, Whole Foods is more than a supermarket chain. It gives Amazon a physical grocery footprint, a premium food brand, a base for local pickup and delivery, and a way to connect Prime membership with grocery shopping. Amazon's 2025 annual report describes its consumer business as serving customers through online and physical stores, with fulfillment handled through networks, outsourcing arrangements, digital delivery, and physical stores sec.gov. Whole Foods is one of the most visible pieces of that physical-store strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Whole Foods now?
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon acquired 100% of Whole Foods Market in 2017, and Whole Foods became a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary.
Can I buy Whole Foods stock?
No. Whole Foods is not separately listed. The only public-market way to get indirect exposure is by owning Amazon shares, because Whole Foods is part of Amazon's corporate group.
Does Jeff Bezos own Whole Foods?
Not directly. Jeff Bezos owns Amazon shares and is Amazon's executive chair. Because Amazon owns Whole Foods, Bezos has indirect economic exposure, but he does not personally own Whole Foods.
Who runs Whole Foods day to day?
Jason Buechel is CEO of Whole Foods Market and Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores. He leads Whole Foods within Amazon's broader grocery organization.
How much did Amazon pay for Whole Foods?
Amazon's acquisition filing says it paid former Whole Foods holders $42.00 per share in cash, with about $13.6 billion paid to holders and about $13.2 billion in cash consideration net of cash acquired.
Is Whole Foods still based in Austin?
Amazon said at the time of closing that Whole Foods would continue operating under the Whole Foods Market brand and that its headquarters would stay in Austin, Texas.
Key takeaways
The bottom line
- Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.com, Inc., not by its founders or a separate public shareholder base.
- Amazon acquired 100% of Whole Foods Market in 2017 through a cash merger.
- Whole Foods is operated inside Amazon's wider grocery and stores organization.
- Amazon does not report Whole Foods as a separate public segment, so its exact standalone revenue is not disclosed.
- Ultimate voting influence sits with Amazon's public shareholders, board, and executive leadership.
Final word
Whole Foods is still a distinct grocery brand in the eyes of shoppers, but it is no longer an independent company. Its ownership, economics, and strategic direction are tied to Amazon. That is the key distinction: Whole Foods sells groceries under its own name, while Amazon owns the asset, appoints the leadership structure, and decides how the chain fits into its larger retail system.