Mastercard is owned by its public shareholders, and its three largest reported holders are The Vanguard Group, BlackRock and the Mastercard Foundation. Mastercard's 2026 proxy statement, filed April 27, 2026, lists Vanguard at 8.6%, BlackRock at 7.7% and Mastercard Foundation Asset Management Corporation at 7.4% of Class A common stock.
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The Foundation stake dates back to the company's 2006 initial public offering, when Mastercard first listed its shares. The sections below cover today's holders, the Foundation's position and the IPO, each tied to its filing.
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Mastercard Incorporated is a publicly traded company owned by the investors who hold its stock, ticker MA. No bank, parent company or government controls it. Its voting Class A shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and a separate non-voting Class B class does not trade on any exchange.
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The 2026 DEF 14A names three holders above 5% of Class A stock and calculates their stakes against 877,780,670 Class A shares outstanding as of April 21, 2026. Every director and executive officer, individually and as a group, owns less than 1%, per the same proxy.
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The two share classes appear on the cover of the 2025 Form 10-K, which reports 885,216,386 Class A shares and 6,595,925 Class B shares outstanding as of February 6, 2026, and notes that Class B has no established public trading market.
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The largest shareholders of Mastercard are The Vanguard Group, BlackRock and the Mastercard Foundation, in that order. Vanguard and BlackRock hold shares for their funds and clients, while the Foundation is a charitable organization whose stake came from Mastercard itself when the company went public.
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Vanguard's row needs a caveat. The proxy footnote says Vanguard reported on March 27, 2026 that, after an internal realignment, it no longer has beneficial ownership over Mastercard shares held by various Vanguard subsidiaries and divisions, which will report separately.
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The Mastercard Foundation is one of Mastercard's three largest shareholders and holds its stake through a wholly owned investment manager. It has been selling shares gradually under a multi year diversification plan, so its percentage has been falling while it stays a large holder.
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The 2026 proxy reports 65,234,702 Class A shares, or 7.4%, with Mastercard Foundation Asset Management Corporation (MFAM) sharing voting and dispositive power with the Foundation. It adds that MFAM, a wholly owned Foundation subsidiary based in Toronto, became investment manager for the shares on February 1, 2024.
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The selling history is in the 2025 Form 10-K. It says the Foundation was originally restricted from selling before May 1, 2027, except for charitable disbursement needs, and that in July 2023 a court approved moving that date to January 1, 2024.
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The same 10-K says the Foundation began selling in March 2024 under an orderly plan to diversify over a seven year period, while committing to remain a long term stockholder. It also says the Foundation's directors must be independent of Mastercard and its customers.
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Mastercard went public in May 2006, listing its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MA. The offering put voting shares in public hands for the first time and created the Foundation's founding stake at the same time.
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Mastercard's investor relations release dated May 24, 2006 announced that the IPO of 61,520,912 Class A shares was priced at $39.00 per share, with trading to begin the next day. The same release said the company would retain $650 million of the proceeds and use the rest to redeem shares held by existing shareholders.
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The Foundation's stake was created alongside the offering. Mastercard's second quarter 2006 earnings release describes a donation of approximately 13.5 million Class A shares to the MasterCard Foundation simultaneously with the May 2006 IPO, recorded as a $395 million non cash expense.
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The IPO column draws on the 2006 pricing release and Q2 2006 earnings release, and the Today column on the 2026 proxy and 2025 10-K.
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Mastercard's charter is built to stop any single investor from gaining control. It caps how much voting stock one holder can own, bars representatives of competitors from the board, and limits some stockholder actions. Those rules mean even the largest holders cannot steer the company alone.
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The 2025 Form 10-K says the certificate of incorporation, subject to limited exceptions, prohibits any person from beneficially owning more than 15% of the Class A stock or of total voting power. It also says stockholders cannot cumulate votes or act by written consent, and that representatives of a Mastercard or Mastercard Foundation competitor cannot serve on the board.
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Management holds little stock by comparison. President and CEO Michael Miebach beneficially owns 210,270 Class A shares as of April 21, 2026, according to the 2026 proxy, and no director or executive officer owns any Class B stock.
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Proxy tables are dated snapshots built from filings that can be years old, and Mastercard's 2026 table shows the gap clearly. Treat each percentage as tied to its filing date, and expect the Foundation's share count to keep shrinking while its diversification plan runs.

No bank appears among the 5% holders in the 2026 proxy. Its operating subsidiary was formed in November 1966 as a non-stock (or membership) corporation, per the 2025 10-K.
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The Vanguard Group, with 75,250,260 Class A shares or 8.6%, per the April 2026 proxy.
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A charitable foundation that received about 13.5 million Class A shares at the 2006 IPO, per Mastercard's Q2 2006 earnings release. Its directors must be independent of Mastercard, per the 10-K.
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$39.00 per Class A share, per Mastercard's May 24, 2006 release.
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Non-voting common stock with no established public market. 6,595,925 Class B shares were outstanding on February 6, 2026, per the 2025 Form 10-K.
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All ownership figures were taken from SEC EDGAR filings and Mastercard investor relations documents listed below. No third-party aggregators or news summaries were used for any number.