The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance is a French-Japanese strategic alliance between the automobile manufacturers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, which together sell more than 1 in 9 vehicles worldwide. Originally known as the Renault–Nissan Alliance from 1999 onwards, Renault and Nissan became strategic partners in 1999 and have nearly 450,000 employees and control ten major brands: Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Infiniti, Renault Samsung, Dacia, Alpine, Datsun, Venucia and Lada. The car group sold 10.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2017, making it the leading light vehicle manufacturing group in the world. The Alliance adopted its current name in September 2017, one year after Nissan acquired a controlling interest in Mitsubishi and subsequently made Mitsubishi an equal partner in the Alliance.