BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates.

The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems, such as isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries. The Industrial Solutions segment develops and markets ingredients and additives for industrial applications, such as polymer dispersions, resins, additives, electronic materials, and antioxidants for automotive, plastics, paints and coatings, electronics, and energy and resource industries. The Surface Technologies segment provides chemical solutions and automotive OEM, which include refinish coatings, surface treatment, catalysts, battery materials, and precious and base metal services for the automotive and chemical sectors.

The Nutrition & Care segment offers ingredients for consumer goods in the areas of nutrition, home, personal care, and technical applications; and serves the food and feed producers, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, detergents, cleaners, and crop protection industries. The Agricultural Solutions segment provides seeds and seed treatment products, as well as fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and biological solutions; and digital farming solutions. The company was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany.