Salt is an open-source automation framework for configuration management, remote execution and infrastructure orchestration. Administrators use it to manage large numbers of systems from a single control point. The software is licensed under Apache 2.0 and is developed by the Salt Project, an open-source community with many contributors. Organisations typically run it on their own infrastructure.
According to the project's website, Broadcom Inc., a US company, is the official sponsor and manager of the Salt project. Broadcom is therefore the US party behind the project, even though the code is freely available under Apache 2.0. Because Salt runs on the organisation's own systems and has no vendor-operated cloud, control over configuration and managed systems stays with the organisation. The commercial VMware Salt product is a separate offering.