OpenPOWER Foundation
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
OpenPOWER Foundation firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- OpenPOWER Foundation
- Legal name
- OpenPOWER Foundation
- Website
- https://openpowerfoundation.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
OpenPOWER Foundation industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open Processor Architecture and Hardware Ecosystem Standards
- NAICS
- Professional Organizations (81392)
- SIC
- Services-Membership Organizations (8600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)
Keywords
Where OpenPOWER Foundation is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
OpenPOWER Foundation business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Membership Dues: The foundation generates revenue through tiered membership fees: Platinum ($100k/year), Gold ($60k/year), Silver ($20k/year with discounts for companies with <100 employees or <10 employees), and Associate/Academic (free). Platinum members receive board positions, while other tiers have election opportunities.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Platinum Membership - $100,000/year |
| Subscription | Annual | Gold Membership - $60,000/year |
| Subscription | Annual | Silver Membership - $20,000/year (discounted) |
| Subscription | Annual | Associate/Academic/Community Membership - Free |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels10 records
OpenPOWER Foundation product offering
Product offeringCore offering
OpenPOWER Foundation is a 501c6 non-profit consortium that stewards and develops the open POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and a portfolio of technical specifications, compliance programs, and interoperability certifications for the semiconductor industry. It enables members to collaborate on POWER-based hardware, silicon, systems, and software through working groups, events, hackathons, and shared development resources including reference platforms and functional simulators.
Product overview
The OpenPOWER Foundation is a non-profit organization (501c6) that supports the free and open RISC instruction set architecture and extensions for the POWER processor family. It operates as a collaborative ecosystem rather than a single-product company, offering the OpenPOWER Instruction Set Architecture specification, the OpenPOWER Ready certification program for verified ecosystem interoperability, various technical working groups (covering accelerators, AI, hardware architecture, ISA, LibreBMC, memory, system software, and compliance), IBM Power Development Cloud access for development, functional simulators for POWER8/9/10 processors, the OPF Passport member portal, and the OpenPOWER HUB resource platform. The foundation enables open community collaboration, technology advancements, and visibility of OpenPOWER successes through tiered membership (Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Associate/Academic).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- OpenPOWER Ready: A certification mark used by the OpenPOWER Foundation to enable ecosystem product developers to indicate that a product has been shown/demonstrated to meet a minimum set of characteristics and should be interoperable with other OpenPOWER Ready products.
Products and services
- OpenPOWER Ready Certification Program A certification program enabling ecosystem product developers to indicate their products meet a minimum set of characteristics and are interoperable with other OpenPOWER Ready products.
- OpenPOWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) Specification The Power Instruction Set Architecture specification describing the architecture used by POWER processors, defining the instructions the processor executes. Available as Book I (User), Book II (Virtual Environment), and Book III (Operating Environment).
- Compliance Test Specifications Compliance specifications including 64-bit ELF ABI, Advanced Accelerator Adapter, CAPI Accelerator, FSI, I/O Design Architecture, ISA, Architecture, OpenPOWER Ready definitions, and Vector Intrinsic Programming Reference.
- IBM Power Development Cloud No-charge remote access to IBM hardware including POWER9, POWER8, and POWER7+ processor-based servers on Linux, AIX, and IBM i operating systems for development, porting, and functional testing.
- IBM POWER Functional Simulators IBM POWER10, POWER9, and POWER8 Functional Simulators available for software development and testing on OpenPOWER platforms.
- OPF Passport Member Portal A unified authentication system used to access all materials and channels within the OpenPOWER Foundation for members.
- OpenPOWER HUB Resource Platform A centralized platform for sharing resources, documentation, and collaboration tools for the OpenPOWER community.
- OpenPOWER Working Groups Technical working groups covering Accelerator TWG, AI SIG, Hardware Architecture TWG, Instruction Set Architecture TWG, LibreBMC SIG, Memory SIG, System Software TWG, Compliance TWG, HUB SIG, and Academic BoF for collaborative development across the OpenPOWER ecosystem.
Companies that use OpenPOWER Foundation
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
OpenPOWER Foundation technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
OpenPOWER Foundation partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
17 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- ChipFoundrycoreOpenPOWER Foundation and ChipFoundry partnered to run the Microwatt Design Challenge, an open-source hardware development competition to accelerate development of the Microwatt-core with open-source tooling. Three winning designs were selected to be fabricated and delivered to the teams.
- Oregon State University Open Source LabcoreOregon State University Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) hosts the OpenPOWER Foundation website and provides infrastructure support. OSUOSL provides hosting for more than 160 projects including those of Linux Foundation and Debian.
- Linux FoundationcoreOpenPOWER Foundation uses Linux Foundation infrastructure for membership enrollment and project management. Listed as an affiliate partner in privacy documentation.
- IBMcoreIBM is the founding member (joined 2013) and Platinum member of OpenPOWER Foundation. IBM started the POWER architecture and is a core member contributing across multiple workgroups including HUB SIG, Accelerator TWG, System Software TWG, ISA TWG, and LibreBMC SIG.
- GooglecoreGoogle is a founding member of OpenPOWER Foundation. Google has shown interest in using IBM chips for data center hardware and participated in early OpenPOWER hardware and software development.
- NVIDIAcoreNVIDIA is a founding member of OpenPOWER Foundation. NVIDIA is adding CUDA software support for NVIDIA GPUs with IBM POWER CPUs and offering NVLink high-speed GPU interconnect as licensed technology to OpenPOWER members.
- Mellanox TechnologiescoreMellanox is a founding member of OpenPOWER Foundation. Collaborated with IBM to produce tightly integrated server and storage solutions with end-to-end FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand and 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet interconnect solutions with IBM POWER CPUs.
- Samsung ElectronicscoreSamsung Electronics is a founding member of OpenPOWER Foundation. Committed to supporting OpenPOWER through supply of memory and storage components for the open ecosystem.
- TyancoreTyan is a founding member of OpenPOWER Foundation. Presented first commercialized POWER8-based system and provided development and reference design for white box server.
- Raptor Computing SystemsminorRaptor Computing Systems produces POWER9-based systems including the Talos II mainboard. Member of OpenPOWER Foundation.
- VanToshminorVanTosh joined OpenPOWER in 2017 and produces PowerEL (Power Enterprise Linux), a fully free open source distribution for IBM POWER 8 and higher platform. Member participates in HUB SIG.
- Oregon State UniversityminorAcademic member of OpenPOWER Foundation participating in HUB SIG. OSU's Open Source Lab hosts infrastructure for the foundation.
- 3MDEBminor3MDEB (Silver member since 2019) is an embedded systems consulting company. Contributes to System Software TWG and develops firmware solutions including coreboot for OpenPOWER systems.
- XilinxminorXilinx joined OpenPOWER Foundation and is delivering FPGA-based acceleration technologies for next-generation data centers. Demonstrated key value store acceleration using IBM CAPI protocol.
- CanonicalminorCanonical joined OpenPOWER Foundation and developed Ubuntu Linux support for POWER architecture. Provided firmware and operating system development for early OpenPOWER white box design.
- Micron TechnologyminorMicron Technology joined as Platinum member and is committed to supporting OpenPOWER through supply of memory and storage components for the open ecosystem.
- AntmicrominorAntmicro joined OpenPOWER Foundation and participates in LibreBMC SIG, contributing to open-source BMC solutions.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
OpenPOWER Foundation competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Apache Software Foundation: ASF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that incubates and governs open-source projects through a merit-based, elected-committer governance model. While software-focused rather than hardware, its membership, IP licensing, and working-group structure offer a comparable template for the governance challenges OpenPOWER faces.
- Open Mainframe Project: Open Mainframe Project, a Linux Foundation sub-project, fosters open-source development on mainframe platforms including IBM POWER/z — directly intersecting OpenPOWER's POWER architecture ecosystem. It demonstrates how adjacent open consortia share members (IBM, Raptor) and influence PowerPC/Linux-on-POWER adoption.
Broad incumbents
- Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation is the largest umbrella nonprofit for open-source/open-governance projects, including CHIPS Alliance and Open Mainframe Project. It uses the same 501(c)(6) membership, tiered dues, and project-hosting model that OpenPOWER uses, but on a much broader scale spanning many ISAs and stacks.
Direct peers
- Eclipse Foundation: Eclipse Foundation is a nonprofit that supports an open-source ecosystem through tiered membership, governance committees, and working groups around specifications such as Adoptium/Jakarta EE. Its governance model, IP licensing policies, and member-driven working-group structure closely parallel OpenPOWER's operational approach.
- RISC-V International: RISC-V International is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, open-standard ISA body that — like OpenPOWER — governs an open RISC instruction set through tiered membership, working groups, and certification programs. It is the closest structural and functional analog and the principal competitive open-ISA alternative to POWER.
- Linaro: Linaro is a member-driven engineering consortium that optimizes open-source software for ARM-based systems through collaborative working groups. It mirrors OpenPOWER's model of organizing multi-vendor engineering around a specific instruction set architecture and producing reference software/firmware deliverables.
- CHIPS Alliance: CHIPS Alliance is a Linux Foundation project that fosters open-source silicon and hardware/chip design collaboration via working groups, similar in mission to OpenPOWER's emphasis on open processor, firmware, and hardware stack development. Both organizations curate open specifications and community IP for chip designers.
- Open Networking Foundation: ONF is a nonprofit operator-led consortium that drives open, disaggregated networking standards (e.g., SDN, P4). It shares OpenPOWER's tiered-membership and working-group-driven standards-body model and shows analogous dynamics of incumbent-vendor-influenced open governance in adjacent compute infrastructure.
- Open Compute Project Foundation: OCP is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit consortium that drives open, interoperable hardware specifications across data center and adjacent computing segments. Like OpenPOWER, it relies on tiered membership, working groups, and certified-product programs to coordinate multi-vendor hardware collaboration.
Others
- Hyperledger Foundation: Hyperledger Foundation is a Linux Foundation sub-foundation hosting enterprise blockchain projects under an open-governance, member-supported model. It is thematically related through its 501(c)(6) governance, tiered membership, and working-group-driven specification contributions analogous to OpenPOWER's standards process.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
OpenPOWER Foundation social profiles
Digital presenceOpenPOWER Foundation financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
OpenPOWER Foundation leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
OpenPOWER Foundation funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
OpenPOWER Foundation M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about OpenPOWER Foundation
What does OpenPOWER Foundation do?
OpenPOWER Foundation is a 501c6 non-profit consortium that stewards and develops the open POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and a portfolio of technical specifications, compliance programs, and interoperability certifications for the semiconductor industry. It enables members to collaborate on POWER-based hardware, silicon, systems, and software through working groups, events, hackathons, and shared development resources including reference platforms and functional simulators.
Is OpenPOWER Foundation a public or private company?
OpenPOWER Foundation is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was OpenPOWER Foundation founded?
OpenPOWER Foundation was founded in 2013. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is OpenPOWER Foundation based?
OpenPOWER Foundation is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does OpenPOWER Foundation make money?
One revenue line is on record: membership Dues.
Who are OpenPOWER Foundation's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Apache Software Foundation and Open Mainframe Project. Linux Foundation is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are Eclipse Foundation, RISC-V International, Linaro, CHIPS Alliance, Open Networking Foundation and Open Compute Project Foundation. Hyperledger Foundation is listed as an others.
Does OpenPOWER Foundation have an API?
No public API is recorded for OpenPOWER Foundation.
What industry is OpenPOWER Foundation in?
OpenPOWER Foundation's product category is Open Processor Architecture and Hardware Ecosystem Standards. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGAKAA, Private Foundations. Its NAICS code is 81392 and its SIC code is 8600.