Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

Is ADM a subsidiary of another company?
No. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company is an independent public corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker ADM. It has no parent company; ownership is distributed among institutional investors and public shareholders. It does hold a significant equity stake in Singapore-based Wilmar International.

Is ADM publicly traded?
Yes. ADM trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ADM and is a member of the S&P 500. It has paid dividends for more than 90 consecutive years and reports quarterly results through SEC filings.

When was ADM founded?
The company's roots date to 1902, when John W. Daniels founded the Daniels Linseed Company in Minneapolis to process flaxseed. The Archer-Daniels-Midland name dates to 1923, when Archer-Daniels Linseed acquired Midland Linseed Products. ADM went public in 1924 and moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2014.

Who founded ADM?
John W. Daniels founded the original linseed crushing business in 1902, and George A. Archer joined shortly afterward, giving the company the Archer-Daniels name. The Midland element came from the 1923 acquisition of Midland Linseed Products. Dwayne Andreas, CEO from 1970, is considered the architect of the modern global company.

What is ADM's market position?
ADM is the largest publicly traded agricultural processor and one of the four dominant global grain merchants, with $80.3 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue. In specialty starches and food ingredients it ranks among the global leaders alongside Cargill, Ingredion, Tate & Lyle, and Roquette, and it is one of the world's largest soybean crushers and corn processors.

What was ADM's SEC settlement about?
In January 2024 ADM paid $40 million to settle SEC charges that it retroactively adjusted intersegment transactions in 2021 and 2022 to inflate the reported results of its Nutrition segment. The company restated affected results, its CFO stepped down, and it settled related shareholder litigation without admitting or denying the SEC's findings.

The company's lineage begins with the Daniels Linseed Company, founded in Minneapolis in 1902 by John W. Daniels to crush flaxseed for linseed oil. George A. Archer joined the business soon after, and the firm became Archer-Daniels Linseed Company. In 1923 it acquired Midland Linseed Products Company and adopted the Archer-Daniels-Midland name.

ADM went public in 1924 and spent the mid-twentieth century diversifying out of flax into soybeans, which became its signature crop. It built crushing plants across the Midwest, added grain storage and river transport, and expanded into flour milling and corn processing. Dwayne Andreas, who took over leadership in 1970, transformed ADM into a global giant and a political force in Washington, championing corn-based ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup, both of which became massive ADM profit centers.

The 1990s brought the company's defining scandal: a federal price-fixing investigation into lysine and citric acid markets that produced guilty pleas in 1996, roughly $100 million in fines, and prison sentences for executives including Andreas's son. The case, dramatized in the 2009 film The Informant, remains a landmark in antitrust enforcement.

Under CEOs Patricia Woertz and then Juan Luciano, ADM acquired specialty ingredients businesses including WILD Flavors in 2014 for about $3 billion and a stake in Singapore-based Wilmar International, one of Asia's largest agribusinesses. It built the Nutrition segment through deals for flavors, probiotics, and plant proteins, including an investment in alternative protein ventures that later produced write-downs.

Fiscal 2025 results reflected a difficult commodity cycle: revenue of $80.3 billion, down 6 percent, and total segment operating profit of $3.2 billion, down 23 percent. Results included $372 million in impairments tied to alternative protein investments and restructuring charges, partly offset by a non-cash gain on the Wilmar stake. Management guided 2026 toward margin recovery in oilseeds and cost reduction across the portfolio.

ADM publishes an annual corporate sustainability report covering deforestation-free supply chain commitments, emissions reduction targets, and regenerative agriculture programs with farmer suppliers. It has committed to eliminating deforestation from its supply chains and runs traceability programs in South American soy and palm-related supply chains.

The company participates in certification schemes including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and supports farmer-facing regenerative agriculture programs across North America. Its decarbonization plans include carbon capture projects at Illinois ethanol facilities.

ADM's environmental record draws criticism from NGOs that have linked its Brazilian soy sourcing to deforestation risk in the Cerrado, and its role as a top corn processor connects it to debates over ethanol policy and industrial agriculture. The company responds with traceability commitments and third-party verified sourcing programs.

ADM's regulatory history includes two significant chapters. The 1996 lysine and citric acid price-fixing case produced guilty pleas, approximately $100 million in fines, and prison terms for senior executives, one of the largest antitrust cases of its era and the subject of the book and film The Informant.

In January 2024 ADM agreed to pay $40 million to settle SEC charges that it improperly adjusted the reported performance of its Nutrition segment in 2021 and 2022 through retroactive intersegment transaction adjustments. The company restated results and its CFO resigned; ADM did not admit or deny the findings. The episode renewed scrutiny of how aggressively the Nutrition segment's growth had been presented to investors.

The company also settled investor litigation related to the Nutrition disclosures and continues to face periodic antitrust attention given the concentrated structure of global grain trading, where four companies handle the majority of seaborne agricultural trade.