Which company owns the Android operating system?

Google owns the Android operating system.

Android began at Android Inc., a startup founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White. Google acquired Android Inc. in 2005, bringing Rubin and other key members of the team into Google. The company then developed Android as a mobile platform based on a modified Linux kernel.

The first commercial Android release, Android 1.0, arrived in 2008. Google helped establish the Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology and telecommunications companies supporting the platform. Device makers can customize Android for phones, tablets, televisions, cars, and watches, which is why Android devices may look different from one another.

A common nuance is that Android is not identical to every Google service found on an Android phone. The Android Open Source Project provides the open-source core, while Google separately supplies proprietary components such as Google Play Services and the Google Play store. Samsung and other manufacturers make Android hardware and add their own interfaces, but they do not own Android.