Bugatti is French by birth and Croatian by ownership.

117 years, five owners since 1980

The year is coloured by whoever held it at the time.

1. 1909 Ettore Bugatti took over a disused dye works at Molsheim in Alsace in 1909 and began building cars under his own name the following year.
2. 1987 Bugatti came back to life under a new owner in 1987, its first change of hands in the window after lying dormant since the 1963 sale to Hispano-Suiza. Bugatti's own newsroom tells it: "By the mid 1980s, the Italian had begun to negotiate the sale of the brand with the French government – discreetly and concealed from public view for two years. In 1987, he founded Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. and became its chairman", and, of the same year, "In 1987 he bought the trademark rights and became chairman of Bugatti Automobili S.p.A." Romano Artioli built a factory at Campogalliano near Modena and made the EB 110 there from 1991, but "On September 23, 1995, after the construction of around 128 vehicles, he filed for bankruptcy", and "After around two years, the bankruptcy proceedings ended in September 1997." The seller was the French state, which Bugatti gives as the counterparty, so no entity will ever exist to link; the buyer, Artioli's Bugatti Automobili S.p.A., was liquidated and will not be collected. Both are named here rather than modelled. No party's account gives the month.
3. 1998 Volkswagen bought the Bugatti name in April 1998. Bugatti's own newsroom states that "Volkswagen had purchased the name rights to the Bugatti brand in April under its then Chairman Ferdinand K. Piëch", a year after the bankruptcy of Romano Artioli's Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. had wound up: "After around two years, the bankruptcy proceedings ended in September 1997. Only a year later, the Volkswagen Group took over the trademark rights and helped the company to reboot in the following years. In 1998, Bugatti returned to Molsheim, France." Volkswagen says the same from its side: "In 1998, Volkswagen took the opportunity to breathe new life into the ninety-year history of this grande marque of the past." The seller is not named in any party's account: it was whichever holder of the trademark rights emerged from the liquidation of the Italian venture, a defunct business that will never be an entity here, so the seller is left empty as not collected. Volkswagen held the marque, through Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. at Molsheim, until it went into Bugatti Rimac on 1 November 2021.
4. 2021 Bugatti, until then a Volkswagen Group brand, was placed in the new Bugatti Rimac joint company on 1 November 2021, keeping its base at Molsheim.
5. 2026 Bugatti got a controlling owner again on 9 September 2026, for the first time since it left the Volkswagen Group. The marque had gone into the joint company Bugatti Rimac on 1 November 2021, held 55 percent by one shareholder and 45 percent by the other, and neither of them controlled it, so for nearly five years no company stood in control above the marque. That ended when the 45 percent went to an investment consortium and the 55 percent holder was left alone with the company that holds Bugatti: "Following completion, Rimac Group is set to take control of Bugatti Rimac", both parties said when the sale was agreed, and the buyer's own account that "Following completion of the transaction, Rimac Group will consolidate Bugatti Rimac". Nothing about Bugatti itself was bought or sold. The marque stays at Molsheim, wholly held by the same company as before, and its own ownership record is unchanged; what changed is who stands above that company. The consortium is an investment group rather than a car company, so it is named here and not collected as an entity.