Which company is Taco Bell's parent outside China?

Outside China, Taco Bell’s parent company is Yum! Brands.

Yum! Brands owns and operates the Taco Bell brand through its global restaurant portfolio, alongside KFC and Pizza Hut. The company was created in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division under the name Tricon Global Restaurants; it adopted the Yum! Brands name in 2002. Taco Bell therefore did not originate as an Inspire Brands, Darden Restaurants, or Restaurant Brands International chain.

China is the important exception behind the wording of this question. Yum! Brands spun off its mainland Chinese restaurant business as Yum China Holdings in 2016. Yum China operates Taco Bell locations in China under a licensing relationship, while Taco Bell restaurants elsewhere remain associated with Yum! Brands. This corporate split can cause confusion because the two companies share brand history and still have a formal commercial relationship, but they are separate publicly traded businesses.