LF AI & Data Foundation

What LF AI & Data Foundation does

LF AI & Data Foundation is a non-profit sub-foundation of The Linux Foundation, founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, that operates as a neutral, vendor-independent host for open-source AI and data infrastructure projects. The foundation's portfolio spans the AI lifecycle: ONNX provides model interoperability across deep learning frameworks; Kedro offers a Python framework for reproducible data science pipelines; DLRover automates distributed training of large models; Docling converts complex documents (PDF, DOCX, images) into structured data for downstream AI; Data Prep Kit cleans and transforms unstructured data for LLMs; BeeAI delivers an open agent-to-agent platform with the Agent Communication Protocol (ACP); and OPEA standardizes composable enterprise GenAI systems with RAG pipelines.

The foundation funds operations through tiered organizational membership (Premier, General, Associate) with Premier members including IBM, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Red Hat, Databricks, and Neural Magic. It does not charge for software; all 67 hosted projects (200M+ lines of code, 331K+ commits) are freely available on GitHub. Go-to-market is community-led, relying on technical working groups (9 active), regional user groups (Japan, India), and co-located events at Open Source Summit and UN Open Source Week to drive adoption.

Beyond project hosting, the foundation increasingly authors standards — RGAF (Responsible Generative AI Framework) aligned with EU AI Act, NIST AI Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, OECD AI Principles, and UNESCO Recommendation; the Model Openness Framework (MOF); and the DocLang AI-native document specification launched in June 2026. The foundation serves individual developers and data scientists, enterprise technology companies seeking ecosystem influence, and governments interested in sovereign AI and open-source governance.

Name

LF AI & Data Foundation

Legal name

LF AI & Data Foundation

Website

https://lfaidata.foundation

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

LF AI & Data Foundation is a Linux Foundation non-profit that hosts 67 open-source AI projects — including ONNX, Kedro, Docling, and OPEA — under neutral governance, serving developers, enterprise technology companies, and governments via tiered membership.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source AI Infrastructure Foundation

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

End-to-End MLOps & ML Platform Suites (HDAAABAA)

Keywords

• Open source AI
• Machine learning frameworks
• Data science tools
• AI interoperability standards
• Enterprise AI platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: The foundation generates revenue through membership tiers including Premier Members, General Members, and Associate Members. Premier members (such as Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat, NVIDIA, Databricks) pay higher fees for governance participation and visibility benefits.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

LF AI & Data Foundation operates as a nonprofit umbrella foundation under The Linux Foundation that hosts and governs open source projects spanning AI, machine learning, deep learning, and data. It delivers vendor-neutral governance, technical infrastructure, and community programs for 67 hosted projects (including ONNX, Kedro, DLRover, Docling, Data Prep Kit, BeeAI, and OPEA), and develops open standards such as the DocLang Specification, RGAF, and the Model Openness Framework.

Product overview

LF AI & Data Foundation is an umbrella foundation under the Linux Foundation that supports open source innovation in AI and data. The foundation hosts a portfolio of projects including ONNX (open format for deep learning model interoperability), Kedro (Python framework for reproducible data science code), DLRover (distributed training automation), Docling (document conversion and understanding), Data Prep Kit (data cleaning for LLMs), BeeAI (agent-to-agent platform), and OPEA (enterprise GenAI platform). Additional initiatives include the Responsible Generative AI Framework (RGAF), DocLang specification, Model Openness Framework, and Generative AI Commons community. The foundation provides a neutral, open governance environment for 67 projects with 100K+ contributors and 2,920+ contributing organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ONNX: Open Neural Network Exchange - an open format to represent deep learning models for interoperability across AI frameworks.
• Kedro
• DLRover
• Generative AI Commons

Products and services

• ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) ONNX is an open format to represent deep learning models, enabling AI developers to move models between state-of-the-art tools and frameworks and share models across the AI ecosystem.
• Kedro Kedro is an open-source Python framework for creating reproducible, maintainable, and modular data science code, applying software engineering best practices to machine learning code.
• DLRover DLRover makes distributed training of large AI models easy, stable, fast, and green by automatically training deep learning models on distributed clusters.
• Docling Docling is an open-source document conversion and understanding toolkit that ingests PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, and images to extract structured information for downstream AI pipelines.
• Data Prep Kit Data Prep Kit is a modular suite of tools designed to clean, transform, and trace unstructured data for LLMs with a focus on quality, transparency, and scalability.
• BeeAI BeeAI is the first open-source agent-to-agent platform enabling developers to build, discover, run, and compose agents using the open Agent Communication Protocol (ACP).
• Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA) OPEA is a sandbox project providing open, standardized, modular, and composable RAG pipelines for enterprises, with a focus on open model development and enterprise-grade GenAI systems.
• Responsible Generative AI Framework (RGAF) RGAF establishes nine core dimensions for responsible AI aligned with global benchmarks including the EU AI Act, NIST AI Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, and OECD AI Principles.
• DocLang Specification DocLang is an open, universal, AI-native document format specification designed to improve how enterprises prepare, exchange, and govern document data for AI systems, preserving semantic meaning and geometric layout in a single format.
• Generative AI Commons A working group of LF AI & Data dedicated to fostering advancement and adoption of efficient, secure, reliable, and ethical Generative AI open-source innovations.
• Model Openness Framework (MOF) A framework for promoting completeness and openness in AI models for reproducibility, transparency, and usability.
• Acumos AI Acumos AI is a federated platform for managing AI and ML applications and sharing AI models with a marketplace for freely sharing AI solutions; the original launch project of the foundation in 2018.
• AI & Data Landscape An interactive landscape exploring open source AI, ML, and DL projects and listing members of LF AI & Data Foundation.

Quantifiable outcome

• 27,000+ GitHub stars for Docling project
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability11 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• IBMcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 June 2026IBM is a Premier Member of LF AI & Data and founding member of the DocLang Working Group. IBM Research Zurich developed Docling, which was contributed to the foundation. IBM contributed three projects: Docling, BeeAI, and Data Prep Kit. IBM Fellow Dr. Kush Varshney participates in Generative AI Commons governance.
• NVIDIAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 June 2026NVIDIA is a Premier Member and founding member of the DocLang Working Group. NVIDIA supports generative AI initiatives and contributes to open standards for AI-native document processing through the foundation.
• Red HatcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 June 2026Red Hat is a Premier Member and founding member of the DocLang Working Group. Red Hat contributes to enterprise AI standards and participates in OPEA project ecosystem.
• ABBYYsecondaryTechnology or Integration · 9 June 2026ABBYY is a contributor to the DocLang Working Group, providing expertise in document processing and AI-native document format development.
• HumanSignalsecondaryTechnology or Integration · 9 June 2026HumanSignal is a contributor to the DocLang Working Group, supporting the development of open standards for AI document processing.
• AMDsecondaryTechnology or Integration · 29 November 2025AMD collaborated with openEuler community on the first SuperPoD-Ready OS, advancing AI and open-source infrastructure with new hardware solutions.
• Inspur CloudsecondaryTechnology or Integration · 29 November 2025Inspur Cloud collaborated with openEuler on SuperPoD-Ready OS development for AI infrastructure.
• Digital ChinasecondaryTechnology or Integration · 29 November 2025Digital China partnered with openEuler community on AI-ready operating system development.
• Futurewei TechnologiessecondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 October 2025Co-published 'The State of Sovereign AI' report with Linux Foundation Research and LF AI & Data, exploring the role of open source in global AI strategy.
• Cooperative Open Intelligent Industry Computing Alliance (COIA)secondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 December 2024COIA officially launched with 46 member organizations. LF AI & Data serves as a key partner, introducing OPEA and Adlik as seed initiatives to accelerate AI adoption in Chinese industries.
• OPEA Consortium PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 April 2024OPEA brings together industry leaders including Anyscale, Cloudera, Datastax, Domino Data Lab, Hugging Face, Intel, KX, MariaDB Foundation, Minio, Qdrant, Red Hat, SAS, VMware (Broadcom), Yellowbrick Data, and Zilliz to develop open, multi-provider GenAI systems with focus on RAG pipelines and enterprise-grade retrieval augmentation.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Apache Software Foundation: Hosts open source AI/ML projects (MXNet, Submarine, Airflow) under a vendor-neutral governance model. Directly comparable as a competing umbrella foundation for community-driven open source software.
• Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): Sister Linux Foundation sub-foundation hosting Kubernetes, Kubeflow, and KServe for ML/AI infrastructure. Directly competes for enterprise AI infrastructure project hosting and Premier member dues.
• PyTorch Foundation: Linux Foundation sub-foundation stewarding PyTorch and related deep learning projects under Meta's lead. Directly comparable as an AI/ML-focused foundation with vendor-driven project governance.
• Eclipse Foundation: Hosts Eclipse Adoptium, Theia, and Jakarta EE under a working group model with member dues. Comparable as a competing open source foundation targeting enterprise software standards and developer ecosystems.
• OpenJS Foundation: Linux Foundation sub-foundation hosting Node.js, jQuery, and other JavaScript projects under neutral governance. Comparable as a sibling foundation competing for the same corporate member pool and developer mindshare.

Emerging players

• Hugging Face: Central hub for open source AI models, datasets, and Spaces with an emerging for-profit governance model. Comparable as a community-driven AI platform with overlapping model-interop and tool goals (and is a member of LF AI & Data's OPEA).
• CNCF (Kubeflow project): Kubernetes-native ML platform hosted under CNCF. Comparable as an open source MLOps platform suite targeting enterprise AI deployment, directly competing with LF AI & Data's DLRover and OPEA projects.

Others

• Open Source Initiative (OSI): Defines the Open Source Definition and approves licenses, including the OSD-compliant license requirement in LF AI & Data's RGAF. Comparable as an adjacent governance authority rather than a direct project host.
• Mozilla Foundation: Non-profit foundation stewarding open source browser technology and responsible AI initiatives. Comparable as a mission-driven non-profit funding open source through membership and donations, with a similar responsible-AI focus area.

Regional players

• NumFOCUS: Non-profit supporting scientific Python projects (NumPy, pandas, Jupyter) with a sponsor-based funding model. Comparable as a foundation stewarding open source data science and ML-adjacent tooling with similar governance and member dynamics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/LFAIDataFdn
• GitHubgithub.com/lfai
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCfasaeqXJBCAJMNO9HcHfbA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lfai

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 LF AI & Data Foundation