What eBPF Foundation does

The eBPF Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 2021 under The Linux Foundation and headquartered in San Francisco. It serves as the neutral governance body for eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter), a Linux kernel technology that allows sandboxed programs to run in privileged contexts such as the operating system kernel without modifying kernel source code or loading kernel modules. The foundation's mandate is to guide upstream eBPF development, promote the technology, and enhance its security and reliability through directed development and regular audits.

The foundation curates an ecosystem of more than 50 projects spanning core infrastructure (the in-kernel eBPF runtime with its verifier, JIT compiler, and BTF; LLVM and GCC eBPF backends) and major applications (Cilium and Calico for Kubernetes networking, Falco and Tetragon for runtime security, Hubble for observability, Katran for layer-4 load balancing, BCC and bpftrace for tracing, Kepler for energy monitoring, and emerging projects such as eBPF for Windows and gpu_ext). It supports the ecosystem through Academic Research Grants of up to $50,000 per project, a Community & Advocacy Fellowship ($1,500 monthly stipends for six months), and a Meetup Program reimbursing local groups up to $150 per month for event expenses.

The foundation is funded entirely by membership dues. Platinum members pay $50,000 per year and currently include CrowdStrike, Google, Isovalent (now part of Cisco), Meta Platforms, and Netflix; Silver members include Datadog, Intel, and Toyota. Thomas Graf, co-founder of Isovalent, chairs the governing board. The foundation has no commercial product revenue, no equity ownership, and operates as a member-funded steward whose outputs are open-source software, research grants, and community programming rather than billable services.

Name

eBPF Foundation

Legal name

eBPF Foundation

Website

https://ebpf.foundation

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The eBPF Foundation is a Linux Foundation non-profit established in 2021 that governs, funds research for, and grows the community around eBPF, a Linux kernel technology for safe programmable infrastructure used by hyperscalers, security vendors, and cloud-native platform teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source Foundation Governance

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

International Grantmaking & Development Foundations (BPAGAKAH), Research Grants, Fellowships & Stipends (International) (EDAIAOAJ)

Keywords

• Open source foundation
• Kernel extensibility
• Programmable infrastructure
• Runtime security
• Cloud native networking

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: The eBPF Foundation is funded through membership fees from Platinum and Silver tier members. Platinum members include CrowdStrike, Google, Isovalent, Meta, and Netflix. Silver members include Datadog, Intel, and Toyota.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The eBPF Foundation is a nonprofit organization under The Linux Foundation that advances eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) technology through open collaboration. It directs upstream eBPF development, promotes adoption, funds academic research grants of up to $50,000, runs a Community & Advocacy Fellowship program with $1,500/month stipends, supports a global meetup program, hosts events such as the eBPF Summit, and operates Platinum and Silver membership tiers for sponsoring enterprises.

Product overview

The eBPF Foundation is a Linux Foundation project that serves as an open, shared technology foundation for programmable infrastructure based on eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter). The foundation's ecosystem comprises major applications including BCC and bpftrace for kernel tracing, Cilium and Calico for Kubernetes networking and security, Tetragon and Falco for runtime security, and Hubble for observability. Core infrastructure includes the Linux Kernel eBPF runtime, LLVM and GCC compiler backends, and libraries in Go (cilium/ebpf), C/C++ (libbpf), and Rust (libbpf-rs, Aya). Emerging projects include eBPF for Windows, BPF conformance testing, hBPF hardware implementation, and user-space runtimes (rbpf, uBPF). The foundation supports the ecosystem through funding programs including Academic Research Grants (up to $50,000 per project) and Community & Advocacy Fellowships (6-month, $1,500/month stipends).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Platinum Membership

Quantifiable outcome

• eBPF powers production systems across billions of devices
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers9 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

Integration3 records

AI capability6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• The Linux FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe eBPF Foundation is a project under The Linux Foundation, which provides organizational infrastructure, administrative support, trademark management, and operational framework. The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for open source collaboration, hosting critical infrastructure projects including Linux, Kubernetes, and eBPF.
• Alpha-OmegacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlpha-Omega is supporting eBPF Foundation security initiatives through independent expert review of critical eBPF execution paths and upstream engineering work to improve runtime memory-safety instrumentation for JITed eBPF programs. The engagement includes security assessment led by STAR Labs.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Eclipse Foundation: Nonprofit foundation governing major open-source runtimes and tooling (Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, Adoptium); comparable model of vendor-neutral governance, working groups, and member-funded research/community programmes.
• Apache Software Foundation: One of the most established open-source foundations; comparable nonprofit governance model that shepherds dozens of flagship projects, funds community programmes, and operates on member dues and sponsorship.
• OpenSSF (Open Source Security Foundation): Sister Linux Foundation project that funds security audits, training, and tooling for open-source projects (e.g., Alpha-Omega, Core Infrastructure Initiative); directly comparable mission of securing critical open-source infrastructure via member dues and grants.
• Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): Direct sibling under The Linux Foundation; both are open-source foundations governing cloud-native infrastructure projects (Kubernetes vs eBPF) using the same member-funded, vendor-neutral governance model with overlapping Platinum sponsor pool.
• OpenJS Foundation: Linux Foundation sub-project that hosts JavaScript runtimes (Node.js) and developer tooling; comparable open-source governance model with corporate Platinum and Silver tier sponsorship.
• Cloud Foundry Foundation: Linux Foundation sub-project with similar vendor-neutral governance over a cloud application platform; comparable member-funded model and overlapping corporate sponsors focused on enterprise PaaS infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• Mozilla Foundation: Established nonprofit foundation stewarding a major open-source tech project (Firefox); comparable foundation model and mission around open internet infrastructure, though focused on consumer browser/AI trust rather than cloud-native.
• The Linux Foundation: Parent organization of the eBPF Foundation; broadly comparable as the umbrella entity hosting Linux, Kubernetes, eBPF, and many other projects with overlapping Platinum sponsor pool and similar governance structure.

Others

• Python Software Foundation: Long-standing nonprofit that funds grants, fellowships, and community programmes around a foundational open-source technology; comparable grantmaking structure and community-development mission, though different technology domain.

Emerging players

• CNCF's TAG App Delivery (formerly TOC) ecosystem peers: gRPC Foundation: Linux Foundation project that sets technical direction for a key cloud-native primitive closely integrated with eBPF (Cilium uses gRPC for Hubble); comparable in being a Linux-Foundation-governed open-source project, though narrower in scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/ebpffoundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

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

Frequently asked questions about eBPF Foundation