Who Owns PayPal?

PayPal Holdings (PYPL 2.9%) became a household name by creating an easy, reliable way to send money via the internet. Today, the company has grown beyond payments to offer a suite of financial services for individuals and businesses.

Below, you'll learn who started PayPal, who owns the company today, and how you can invest in this fintech stock.

Ownership history

Who is the owner of PayPal?

PayPal is a public company owned by its shareholders. That fact isn't nearly as interesting as the ownership history of PayPal -- a history that includes cameos by Elon Musk and Max Levchin, who's now the CEO of a different fintech stock, Affirm (AFRM 5.31%).

First, let's provide the context. What is fintech? Fintech, short for financial technology, describes software, hardware, and related technologies that streamline or digitize financial services. This includes applications for digital payments, cryptocurrencies, mobile banking, and investing. Robo-advising algorithms and buy now, pay later offerings are also under the umbrella of fintech.

PayPal, Coinbase (COIN 5.68%), Block (SQ 2.32%), Visa (V -0.23%), and Robinhood (HOOD 4.44%) are all popular fintech stocks.

Long before Tesla (TSLA -1.11%) and Twitter, Musk founded a financial services website called X.com. It was 1999, and Musk's vision involved easy digital payments for internet transactions. At the same time, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Levchin were working to a similar end in their startup, Confinity.

X.com and Confinity would join forces to build a larger, stronger entity. Musk remained involved briefly but was ousted before the end of 2000. In 2021, Confinity changed its name to PayPal. It went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in February 2002, rising 50% on its first trading day.

PayPal did not remain public for long. A few months after its initial public offering (IPO), eBay (EBAY 1.32%) bought the company outright for $1.5 billion and delisted it from the Nasdaq. At the time, some 60% of PayPal's revenue came from eBay transactions. The partnership allowed the two teams to work more closely to streamline the online checkout experience.

In the years that followed, PayPal expanded its service set, acquired Venmo, and ultimately outgrew eBay. PayPal split away from the online retailer and became a public entity for the second time in 2015.

Largest shareholders

Who are the largest shareholders?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires public company insiders and beneficial owners to disclose their share positions. Insiders are usually company executives who are privy to corporate details before they become public knowledge. Beneficial owners hold more than 5% of a class of stock.

According to SEC filings, the largest insiders and beneficial owners of PayPal include the following.

1. Pierre M. Omidyar is the founder of eBay. In 2018, he reported owning 58 million shares of PayPal. Based on PayPal's current outstanding share count, that amounted to a 5.2% ownership stake in early 2024. At a stock price of roughly $62, Omidyar's position was worth about $3.6 billion. Omidyar is no longer actively involved in eBay or PayPal.
2. Daniel H. Schulman was CEO of PayPal from 2015 until he retired at the end of 2023. As of his last filing in December 2023, Schulman owned 597,883 PayPal shares. His position amounted to a 0.05% ownership stake, worth about $37 million.
3. Aaron Karczmer is executive vice president and chief enterprise services officer for PayPal. As of March 2024, Karczmer owned 142,442 PayPal shares worth almost $9 million.
4. John Joseph Donahoe is CEO of Nike (NYSE:NIKE) and is the chairman of PayPal's board of directors. Donahoe owned 83,553 PayPal shares as of January 2024, valued at about $5 million.
5. David Wyatt Dorman, also a PayPal director, owned 66,405 shares as of January 2024. Dorman's PayPal position has added roughly $4 million to his net worth.

The largest institutional investors in PayPal are as follows.

1. Vanguard Group owns about 8% of PayPal. The mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) powerhouse has 90 million shares worth $5.6 billion in total.
2. BlackRock (BLK 0.69%), one of the world's largest asset managers, has 72.5 million shares of PayPal, or 6.5% of the company. The shares' cumulative value of $4.5 billion is a tiny sliver of BlackRock's $10 trillion of assets under management.
3. State Street Corp. (STT 0.14%), another fund manager, owns 4% of PayPal, with 45.3 million shares. The position is worth about $2.8 billion.
4. Comprehensive Financial Management, a California-based financial advisory firm, holds 28.6 million PayPal shares. That is a 2.5% ownership position, worth about $1.8 billion.
5. Geode Capital Management is an asset manager and Fidelity spinoff. Geode owns 21.2 million PayPal shares. The position is worth $1.3 billion and amounts to a 1.9% ownership stake.

Board of directors

Who is on the board of directors for PayPal?

PayPal's board has 12 directors.

1. Rodney C. Adkins is president of capital investment company and business consultant 3RAM Group LLC. His resume also includes a decades-long leadership career with IBM (IBM -1.05%).
2. Alex Chriss is PayPal's president and CEO. He came to PayPal from Intuit (INTU 1.62%), where he most recently held the title of executive vice president and general manager of the company's small business and self-employed group. Chriss also serves as a director for the home remodeling website Houzz.
3. Jonathan Christodoro has a lengthy career in investment banking, which includes working as a managing director for Carl Icahn's investment house. Christodoro has been on PayPal's board since 2015. He is currently a partner at Patriot Global Management.
4. John J. Donahoe has been chairman of PayPal's board since 2015. Donahoe is also president, CEO, and director at Nike.
5. David W. Dorman is former chairman and CEO of AT&T (T 1.02%) predecessor SBC Communications. Dorman is also non-executive board chair of CVS (CVS -0.22%) and a founding partner of private investment firm Centerview Capital Technology Fund. He has been on PayPal's board since 2015.
6. Belinda Johnson joined PayPal as a director in 2017. She formerly held leadership positions at Airbnb (ABNB 0.75%), including chief operating officer. She also served as a senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Yahoo!
7. Enrique Lores is president, CEO, and director for technology company HP (HPQ -0.46%). He has been with HP for three decades. In 2015, he led the division of the former Hewlett-Packard Company into two entities: HP, Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company.
8. Gail J. McGovern has been president and CEO of the American Red Cross since 2008. She has served on PayPal's board since 2015. She currently chairs the corporate governance and nominating committee.
9. Deborah M. Messemer served as major market managing partner for professional services firm KPMG from 2008 to 2018. She joined PayPal's board in 2018 and serves as a member of the audit, risk, and compliance committee.
10. David M. Moffett was CEO of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, between 2008 and 2009. He was also chief financial officer of Star Banc, overseeing the acquisitions of Firstar Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. Moffett has been a director for PayPal since 2015.
11. Ann M. Sarnoff is chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group. She has also served as president of BBC Worldwide Americas and chief operating officer of BBC Worldwide North America. She has been on PayPal's board since 2017.
12. Frank D. Yeary is a manager at private investment firm Darwin Capital Advisors. He has also held senior leadership roles at Camberview Partners and Citigroup Investment Banking. Yeary has been a director for PayPal since 2015.

Related investing topics

How to invest

How to invest in PayPal

Investing in PayPal is straightforward. The company trades on the Nasdaq exchange, so you can buy the stock from within your brokerage account or IRA. Once you've confirmed PayPal suits your strategy for investing, simply place a buy order for the number of shares you'd like to purchase. If your broker supports fractional or dollar-cost averaging, you can place an order using the dollar amount you want to invest.

If you're new to investing in stocks, you might consider buying PayPal indirectly through a mutual fund or ETF. A fund provides instant diversification, which is a good way to manage your risk.

PayPal is a member of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 indexes, so the stock is readily available in various low-cost index funds. Popular options include:

1. Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO 1.0%) tracks the S&P 500. With a low expense ratio of 0.03%, VOO is a cost-efficient way to get exposure to the top U.S. stocks. The fund's total assets exceed $1.1 trillion. The PayPal position comprises 0.15% of the overall portfolio.
2. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY 0.95%) is another option for S&P investors. SPY charges a higher expense ratio of 0.0945%.
3. Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ 1.54%) tracks the Nasdaq-100, an index that's produced an average annual gain of more than 20% in the last five years. PayPal comprises 0.5% of the QQQ portfolio. The fund's expense ratio is 0.20%.
4. Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM 1.55%) has the same portfolio as QQQ but charges a lower expense ratio of 0.15%. QQQM is oriented toward retail investors, while QQQ has the size and liquidity to cater to institutional investors.

If you're looking for a fund that has PayPal as a top-10 holding, First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund (FDN 2.58%) is an option. FDN's expense ratio is 0.52%.