Key Takeaways
- Who owns Pinterest? Pinterest, Inc. is owned collectively by its public shareholders.
- Pinterest trades on the NYSE under PINS.
- Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra remain highly influential because of their Class B voting shares.
- In Pinterest’s 2026 proxy, Silbermann had 35.33% of total voting power, and Sciarra had 31.19%.
- Class A shares carry one vote each, while Class B shares carry 20 votes each.
- BlackRock and Vanguard are among the major investment managers disclosed in Pinterest’s ownership filings, although ownership reporting can change over time.
- Pinterest went public in April 2019.
- Ben Silbermann became Executive Chairman in 2022, while Bill Ready became CEO.
- Pinterest reported 640 million monthly active users in Q2 2026, showing how far the company has grown beyond its startup years.
Quick Answer: Who Owns Pinterest?
Who owns Pinterest? Pinterest, Inc. is publicly owned by its shareholders. Major disclosed shareholders include large investment managers such as BlackRock and The Vanguard Group. At the same time, co-founders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra retain substantial voting influence through their Class B shares.
As of Pinterest’s 2026 proxy information, Ben Silbermann was reported with 35.33% of total voting power, while Paul Sciarra was reported with 31.19%. Together, their reported voting power was about two-thirds of the company’s total.
Therefore, who owns Pinterest and who controls Pinterest’s voting decisions are two related but different questions.
Who Owns Pinterest Today?
The most reliable way to answer who owns Pinterest is to look at Pinterest’s latest proxy and SEC filings rather than relying on old ownership lists found online.
Pinterest’s 2026 proxy reported the following significant holders:
| Shareholder | Reported ownership | Reported voting power |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Silbermann | 36.91 million Class B shares | 35.33% |
| Paul Sciarra | 32.59 million Class B shares | 31.19% |
| BlackRock | 59.58 million Class A shares | 2.85% |
| The Vanguard Group | 60.15 million Class A shares in the cited ownership disclosure | 2.88% |
These figures are not directly comparable as simple percentages of the same thing. The founders’ Class B holdings carry substantially greater voting rights, while BlackRock and Vanguard’s disclosed holdings are primarily Class A shares.
This is one of the most important details when researching who owns Pinterest.
Why Do Voting Rights Matter?
Pinterest has two common-stock classes. Class A shares carry one vote per share, while Class B shares carry 20 votes per share. Both classes generally vote together as one class.
As a result, a shareholder can own a relatively small portion of Pinterest’s economic equity while having a much larger influence over shareholder votes.
That structure helps explain why who owns Pinterest cannot be answered accurately by looking only at the largest percentage holders of ordinary shares.
Ben Silbermann’s Role in Pinterest Ownership
Ben Silbermann is one of the most important names in the answer to the question of who owns Pinterest.
Silbermann co-founded Pinterest with Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. Pinterest identifies October 2008 as the company’s founding date, while the platform launched publicly in 2010.
Although Silbermann is no longer Pinterest’s CEO, he remains highly influential through his ownership of Class B stock.
Pinterest’s 2026 proxy reported Silbermann with 36,911,603 Class B shares, representing 46.32% of the outstanding Class B shares and 35.33% of total voting power under the company’s disclosed calculation.
So, when people ask who owns Pinterest, Silbermann deserves particular attention. He does not personally own all of Pinterest, but his voting position gives him significant influence.
Paul Sciarra’s Continuing Influence
Paul Sciarra is another major founder in the answer to who owns Pinterest.
The 2026 proxy reported Sciarra with 32,589,537 Class B shares, equal to 40.90% of the outstanding Class B shares and 31.19% of total voting power.
The filing explains that these shares are held through trusts and related entities, with Sciarra having voting and investment powers described in the filing.
This means the founders’ influence did not disappear when Pinterest became a public company.
BlackRock and Vanguard’s Position
Large investment managers also appear in the answer to who owns Pinterest.
Pinterest’s 2026 proxy reported BlackRock with 59,584,440 Class A shares and The Vanguard Group with 60,147,395 Class A shares under the ownership information presented in the filing.
However, there is an important qualification regarding Vanguard. Pinterest’s filing notes that Vanguard reported an internal realignment in March 2026 under which it no longer had, or was deemed to have, beneficial ownership over certain Pinterest securities previously reported under the Vanguard name. Some of those holdings were to be reported separately by subsidiaries or business divisions.
Therefore, older articles claiming that Vanguard simply owns a fixed percentage of Pinterest can be misleading.
The same principle applies to any answer about who owns Pinterest: ownership percentages can change as shares are bought, sold, transferred, or reorganized.
Pinterest’s Dual-Class Ownership Structure
The dual-class structure is the key to understanding who owns Pinterest.
| Feature | Class A | Class B |
|---|---|---|
| Voting rights per share | 1 | 20 |
| Can generally be converted into the other class? | Not the same mechanism | Convertible into Class A on a share-for-share basis |
| Main significance | Economic ownership and public trading | Greater voting influence |
Pinterest’s 2026 proxy states that Class B shares can be converted into Class A shares on a one-for-one basis. The company also states that Class A and Class B shares generally vote together, with each Class A share carrying one vote and each Class B share carrying 20 votes.
In practical terms, this means who owns Pinterest involves both financial ownership and voting control.
A public investor may own millions of Class A shares without having the same voting influence as a founder holding fewer Class B shares.
Pinterest Corporate Timeline
2008: Pinterest’s Founding
Pinterest traces its founding to October 2008, when Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp founded the company. Pinterest’s SEC filings also show that the company was previously known as Cold Brew Labs before changing its name to Pinterest, Inc. in 2012.
This early period established the foundation for what would eventually become a global visual discovery platform.
2010: Pinterest Launches
Pinterest says the platform launched in 2010. The service developed around discovering, saving, and organizing visual ideas rather than following the traditional format of a standard social network.
That difference became important to the company’s later business model.
2019: Pinterest Goes Public
A major change in who owns Pinterest happened in 2019.
Pinterest completed its initial public offering on April 18, 2019, and its Class A shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under PINS.
The IPO price was $19 per share, and Pinterest ultimately sold 86.25 million Class A shares through the offering after the underwriters exercised their additional-share option.
Going public meant that Pinterest was no longer owned primarily through private venture funding arrangements. Instead, its Class A shares became available to public-market investors.
Nevertheless, the dual-class structure allowed significant founder voting power to remain in place.
2022: Ben Silbermann Leaves the CEO Role
Another major milestone came in June 2022.
Pinterest announced that Silbermann would move from CEO to Executive Chairman, while Bill Ready would become CEO and join the company’s board. Ready came to Pinterest after senior roles at Google and PayPal.
This was a leadership change, not an ownership transfer.
That distinction matters because searches for who owns Pinterest sometimes confuse the company’s CEO with its largest controlling shareholders.
2025: Pinterest Reaches 619 Million Monthly Active Users
Pinterest ended 2025 with 619 million global monthly active users, up 12% year over year. The company also reported approximately $4.22 billion in 2025 revenue.
The scale of the platform is important because Pinterest’s ownership story is no longer that of a small startup backed by venture capital firms. It is now a major publicly traded technology company with hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
2026: Pinterest Continues to Expand
Pinterest’s latest reported results make the current picture even clearer.
For the second quarter of 2026, Pinterest reported 640 million global monthly active users, an 11% increase year over year. Revenue reached $1.18 billion, up 18% year over year.
The company also reported that it had completed more than $2 billion in share repurchases during the first half of 2026, at an average price of $18.17 per share.
These developments do not change the basic answer to who owns Pinterest, but they show how the company’s public shareholder base continues to evolve.
Who Controls Pinterest?
If the question is really who controls Pinterest, the answer is different from simply asking who owns its stock.
Based on Pinterest’s 2026 proxy, Ben Silbermann held 35.33% of total voting power and Paul Sciarra held 31.19%. Their combined reported voting power was therefore approximately 66.5%.
That gives the two founders substantial influence despite Pinterest being publicly traded.
However, it would be inaccurate to say that either founder individually owns Pinterest outright.
The company belongs collectively to its shareholders, while the dual-class structure gives certain shareholders much greater voting influence.
Does Bill Ready Own Pinterest?
No. Bill Ready is Pinterest’s CEO, but being CEO does not mean he owns the company.
Pinterest’s 2026 ownership disclosure lists Ready with Class A securities and associated options, but his reported voting power is less than 1%.
His position is therefore primarily an executive leadership role rather than founder-style voting control.
Pinterest confirms that Ready remains its CEO and a member of its board.
Do Google, Amazon, or Meta own Pinterest?
No.
Pinterest is an independent publicly traded company. It is not owned by Google, Amazon, Meta, or another large technology company.
Those companies may compete with Pinterest in areas such as advertising, discovery, commerce, or online content, but that does not make them owners of Pinterest.
The reliable ownership records point instead to public shareholders, founders with substantial Class B voting rights, and major institutional investors.
Why the Pinterest Ownership Story Matters
Understanding who owns Pinterest gives useful context for how the company makes long-term decisions.
Public shareholders provide the capital and collectively own the publicly traded company. Meanwhile, the founders’ Class B shares give them unusually strong voting influence.
At the same time, Pinterest has continued investing in visual search, artificial intelligence, shopping, advertising, and international growth.
The company’s latest results show that the strategy is operating at considerable scale, with 640 million monthly active users reported for Q2 2026.
For readers researching who owns Pinterest, this is the most important takeaway: Pinterest is public, but its voting structure still gives its founders a powerful position.
Common Mistakes About Who Owns Pinterest
Mistake 1: Saying Ben Silbermann owns all of Pinterest
Silbermann is a major shareholder and voting power holder, but Pinterest is publicly owned by its shareholders.
Mistake 2: Treating the CEO as the owner
Bill Ready runs Pinterest as CEO. He does not personally own the company.
Mistake 3: Looking only at Class A ownership
The Class B structure is essential because each Class B share carries 20 votes compared with one vote for Class A.
Mistake 4: Using old institutional ownership percentages
Institutional holdings can change, and Vanguard’s 2026 reporting changes are a good example of why old ownership figures should not be presented as current facts.
Conclusion
So, who owns Pinterest? The accurate answer is not one person or one technology company. Pinterest, Inc. is publicly owned by its shareholders, with institutional investors holding significant Class A positions and founders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra retaining unusually strong voting influence through Class B shares.
That structure has remained important since Pinterest went public in 2019. Furthermore, the company has continued to grow under CEO Bill Ready, reaching 640 million monthly active users in the second quarter of 2026.
For anyone searching who owns Pinterest, the clearest distinction is between economic ownership and voting control. Public investors collectively own the company, while the founders’ high-vote shares continue to give them substantial influence over major corporate decisions.
For Brandclickx, that distinction is what makes Pinterest’s ownership story worth following. It is a public company with a global shareholder base, yet its founders still have a level of voting influence that many ordinary public-company investors do not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Pinterest?
Pinterest is owned by its shareholders because Pinterest, Inc. is a publicly traded company. However, founders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra hold substantial voting power through Class B shares.
Is Pinterest privately owned?
No. Pinterest has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since April 18, 2019, under the ticker PINS.
Does Ben Silbermann still own Pinterest?
Silbermann remains a significant Pinterest shareholder and voting power holder. Pinterest’s 2026 proxy reported him with 35.33% of total voting power.
Who is the CEO of Pinterest?
Bill Ready is Pinterest’s CEO and serves on the company’s board of directors.
How much of Pinterest do the founders control?
Based on Pinterest’s 2026 proxy, Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra held 35.33% and 31.19% of total voting power, respectively. Together, that was approximately 66.5%.
Does Meta own Pinterest?
No. Pinterest is a separate publicly traded company and is not owned by Meta.
What is Pinterest’s stock ticker?
Pinterest trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PINS.
