What The Apache Software Foundation does

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. ASF provides organizational, legal, and financial support for 290+ open-source software projects, stewarded by 10,000+ committers and 1,190+ governance Members under the principle of "community over code." Its portfolio spans foundational web infrastructure (Apache HTTP Server), big data and streaming platforms (Kafka, Spark, Hadoop, Pulsar, Flink, Iceberg, Gravitino, Polaris), databases (HBase, IoTDB, HugeGraph, Geode), cloud and DevOps tooling (CloudStack, Airflow, NiFi, Bigtop), security and observability (HertzBeat, Teaclave, Ranger), and serialization and metadata projects (Fory, Gluten). All software is freely distributed under the Apache License 2.0, an OSI-approved license with explicit patent grants that uniquely protects commercial adopters from contributor patent claims.

ASF's revenue model is donations and corporate sponsorships rather than commercial sales. The foundation accepts one-time and recurring individual donations via donate.apache.org and receives corporate sponsorship from major technology companies, including a $1.5 million donation from Anthropic and $250,000 from Alpha-Omega in April 2026 to seed the Responsible AI Initiative, which carries a $10 million multi-year fundraising goal. Software distribution occurs through self-serve channels: direct downloads from apache.org, GitHub source repositories, and a global mirror network, with no paid tier, subscription, or usage-based charge. ASF serves a horizontal customer base spanning enterprise organizations (AWS, Google, Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Snowflake, Databricks, Uber, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase), software developers, cloud providers, and AI/ML organizations, with select projects supporting billions of users globally. The foundation's GTM is community-led rather than commercial, relying on conferences (Community Over Code, Flink Forward, Iceberg Summit), the Plus One newsletter and podcast, and developer relations rather than sales motion.

The foundation's strategic priorities have shifted toward AI-era relevance: it launched the Responsible AI Initiative in April 2026 to strengthen open-source infrastructure for AI systems, joined the Project Glasswing defensive cybersecurity coalition alongside AWS, Apple, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and JPMorgan Chase, and graduated multiple AI-adjacent projects (Gravitino, Polaris, Gluten, HertzBeat) to Top-Level Project status. ASF recently rebranded with a new oak leaf logo in September 2025 while retaining the 'Apache' name, and appointed Daniel Ruggeri as Executive Vice President in April 2026 alongside new board members including Emmanuel Lecharny.

Name

The Apache Software Foundation

Legal name

The Apache Software Foundation

Website

https://apache.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Apache Software Foundation is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides organizational, legal, and financial support for 290+ open-source software projects stewarded by 10,000+ committers worldwide, distributed free under the Apache License 2.0.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Forest Hill

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Sponsorships: ASF operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization supported by individual and corporate donors. All software is provided free of charge. Revenue includes corporate sponsorships, individual donations, and partnership funding for specific initiatives like the Responsible AI Initiative.
2. Donations via donate.apache.org: The foundation accepts one-time and recurring donations (monthly, quarterly, annual) in multiple currencies including USD, EUR, CAD, GBP. Donations are 100% secure, tax-deductible for US donors, supporting ASF's day-to-day activities.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that provides organizational, legal, and financial support for 290+ community-driven open source software projects. It stewards flagship projects such as Apache HTTP Server, Hadoop, Kafka, Spark, Iceberg, Pulsar, and Airflow, distributing all software freely under the Apache License 2.0.

Product overview

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is a nonprofit organization that provides 290+ open source software projects for the public good. The portfolio includes foundational web infrastructure (Apache HTTP Server), big data and analytics platforms (Hadoop, Kafka, Iceberg, Spark ecosystem), cloud and DevOps tools (CloudStack, Airflow, NiFi), observability and security solutions (HertzBeat, Teaclave), messaging systems (Pulsar, Artemis, RocketMQ), database technologies (HBase, IoTDB, HugeGraph, Geode), web frameworks (Grails), and metadata/catalog solutions (Gravitino, Polaris). ASF projects span data lakes, streaming, machine learning infrastructure, and AI systems, with the portfolio organized through Top-Level Projects (mature, independently governed) and Incubator Projects (developing under mentorship). The foundation provides governance, legal frameworks (Apache License 2.0), and community support rather than commercial products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Apache HTTP Server

Quantifiable outcome

• 290+ open source projects providing software used by billions of users globally
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration16 records

AI capability7 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Project Glasswing Coalition (AWS, Apple, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Cisco)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 April 2026Defensive cybersecurity coalition providing Anthropic's Mythos AI model access for vulnerability detection, code auditing, and penetration testing. Coalition members include major tech companies and approximately forty critical infrastructure groups under non-public agreements. Anthropic committed $100 million in usage credits with donations totaling $4 million to open-source security foundations.
• Palo Alto NetworkscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 April 2026Part of Project Glasswing defensive cybersecurity coalition bringing AI vulnerability detection tools to open source maintainers.
• JPMorgan ChasecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 April 2026Part of Project Glasswing defensive cybersecurity coalition bringing AI vulnerability detection tools to open source maintainers.
• Linux FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLinux Foundation partnered with Anthropic in Project Glasswing, receiving $2.5 million donation as part of the initiative to provide AI-powered security tools to open source maintainers.
• SnowflakecoreTechnology or IntegrationSnowflake built its Interoperable Lakehouse architecture on Apache Iceberg and Apache Polaris (an ASF Top-Level Project). Snowflake contributes to Apache Iceberg ecosystem with zero-copy integrations and actively supports the open source community.
• DremiocoreTechnology or IntegrationDremio is a foundational contributor to Apache Iceberg ecosystem, Apache Arrow, and Apache Polaris. Dremio engineer JB Onofre was elected to ASF board. Dremio's Open Catalog is built on Apache Polaris enabling full Iceberg access from any REST-compatible engine.
• HetznerminorOthersHetzner Data Centers (Germany) provides server hosting in Finland for ASF databases and web content as an external service provider.
• Amazon Web ServicesminorOthersAWS provides DNS hosting services for ASF. By nature of DNS, data is stored in several servers around the globe. AWS data centers are certified to ISO 27001, 27017, and PCI DSS Level 1.
• Microsoft AzureminorOthersMicrosoft Azure Data Centers host ASF servers in the USA for databases and web content. Microsoft fully supports GDPR compliance.
• FastlyminorOthersFastly provides CDN services to support ASF services. Fastly fully supports GDPR compliance.
• GitHubcoreOthersGitHub hosts all ASF source code repositories with 10,000+ committers. GitHub fully supports GDPR compliance for source code hosting and collaboration.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit open-source foundation stewarding 1,000+ projects including Linux kernel, Kubernetes (CNCF sub-foundation), PyTorch, Hyperledger, and Open Mainframe Project. It uses a near-identical governance model (project incubation, vendor-neutral, corporate sponsorships) and competes with ASF for incubating projects and corporate sponsor dollars across AI, cloud, and infrastructure.
• Eclipse Foundation: Eclipse Foundation is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit open-source foundation managing 400+ projects including Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, Theia, Eclipse MOSAIC, and Adoptium. Comparable to ASF in governance structure, sponsorship model, and project-incubation focus; the two often compete for the same Java/JVM ecosystem projects.
• Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): CNCF, a sub-foundation of Linux Foundation, manages 100+ cloud-native projects including Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and Argo. Directly comparable to ASF in sub-domain (cloud and infrastructure), governance model, and sponsor overlap; competes head-on with Apache projects like Pulsar and CloudStack.
• Python Software Foundation: PSF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation that holds and stewards the intellectual property of the Python programming language. Comparable to ASF's Apache Software Foundation model: nonprofit, volunteer-driven, sponsorships/donations, manages governance and licensing for a major open-source ecosystem.
• Mozilla Foundation: Mozilla Foundation (and Mozilla Corporation) is a comparable 501(c)(3)-adjacent nonprofit steward of major open-source software (Firefox, Servo, Rust contributions). Similar reliance on a mix of donations and corporate partnerships, and stewardship of foundational internet infrastructure.
• OpenJS Foundation: OpenJS Foundation, a Linux Foundation project, incubates and supports JavaScript ecosystem projects (Node.js, jQuery, Webpack, Electron). Directly comparable ASF-style nonprofit open-source steward model within the web/JS ecosystem.
• NumFOCUS: NumFOCUS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports scientific and data-science open-source projects (NumPy, Pandas, Jupyter, Bokeh). Highly comparable: similar 501(c)(3) structure, sponsorship-driven funding model, and project-incubation approach—but overlaps with ASF on data projects like Spark and Iceberg-adjacent tooling.
• Rust Foundation: Rust Foundation is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit stewarding the Rust programming language ecosystem and associated projects (Cargo, rustup). Comparably structured to ASF (foundation-managed, corporate-sponsored, vendor-neutral governance) but focused on a single language.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TheASF
• GitHubgithub.com/apache
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/TheApacheFoundation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-apache-software-foundation

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Apache Software Foundation