Who Owns The Nothing Phone Brand?

Nothing Technology got its start in 2020 after its founder, Carl Pei, left OnePlus — another phone company he started — based out of London. The company is best known for its transparent design aesthetics and mid-range phones at relatively affordable pricing. Alongside the eight phones, including the newer Nothing Phone (4a), released since 2022, Nothing also has a lineup of audio products and, at one point, a beer.

Carl Pei isn't just the co-founder of Nothing Technology, he's also its CEO. It's assumed that the other co-founders of the company also own parts of it. However, as Nothing isn't a public company, this information isn't actively available. What is available is information listed on the U.K. government business tracker, Companies House. According to this, Carl Pei is the only person with "significant control" over the company.

Others detailed on Companies House include co-founder David Garcia, who still appears to work for Nothing, but has resigned from the director role detailed. Another person, Timothy Holbrow, left the company in October 2025 to begin his own venture. As of right now, Carl Pei is the only person active in a control capacity. 

With the company private, what is known is that it regularly raises money through venture capitalists. These investors will buy up portions of the company in exchange for capital, used to fund the business, and then will cash out once the investment has grown. As such, Nothing has raised over $300 million since 2023. The companies involved include Highland Europe and Tiger Global Management.

Part of the Tiger Global investment group was Google Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. These two companies have a vested interest in Nothing, with Qualcomm providing chips that power the phone. Google, meanwhile, invested in the brand prior to this, too. In 2021, it joined other backers, including Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, as it anticipated the brand's success based on "compelling" smart devices and its "global mindset."

Nothing is pivoting to approach the hardware side of AI in the coming months. In a Nothing blog post following its latest funding round with Tiger Global Management and co., the company announced that the move to release something with a focus on AI would be "the future... for Nothing." There is no release date or any real idea of what the company plans, which is one of the benefits you get from being a private company.