Cardiocondyla (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) ants are small and inconspicuous species. All Cardiocondyla are native to the Old World, but 5 species have been broadly dispersed through human commerce, achieving widespread distributions in both the Old World and the New World. Here I examine the worldwide spread of Cardiocondyla minutior. I compiled published and unpublished C. minutior specimen records from > 300 sites. I documented the earliest known C. minutior records for 56 geographic areas (countries, island groups, major Caribbean islands, and US states), including several for which I found no previously published records: Austral Islands, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Honduras, Îles Éparses, Jamaica, Madagascar, and Mayotte. Cardiocondyla minutior appears to be originally from the Indo-Malayan region, where all its closest relatives are found. Surprisingly, there are few records of C. minutior from this region. Instead, most Old World records of C. minutior come from Pacific and Indian Ocean islands where there are few or no native ants, e.g., the Chagos Archipelago, Hawaii, Îles Éparses, Easter Island, the Marquesas Islands, the Seychelles, and the Society Islands. Cardiocondyla minutior is becoming widespread in tropical and subtropical parts of the New World. The success of Cardiocondyla species in exotic locales may be due, in part, to their ability to co-exist with dominant invasive ants, such as the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile.