Hub
Open-source foundations and stewards
How foundations such as the Linux Foundation, the PyTorch Foundation, LF AI & Data, and the Agentic AI Foundation host AI projects, and why a nonprofit's tax status is separate from the openness of what it hosts.
An open-source foundation gives projects a neutral home. It can hold trademarks, raise and spend member funds, and run governing boards, while each project keeps its own technical leadership. The Linux Foundation, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, describes itself as a neutral hub for developers to manage and scale open technology projects. Under the Agentic AI Foundation's charter, for example, trademarks relating to its projects must be held by LF Projects, LLC or the Linux Foundation.16
Several AI-focused foundations are directed funds of the Linux Foundation. The charters of the PyTorch Foundation, LF AI & Data, and the Agentic AI Foundation each say that the fund raises, budgets, and spends money for its technical projects, operates under its governing board and the Linux Foundation consistent with the Linux Foundation's tax-exempt status, and leaves each project's governance to that project's own charter. The PyTorch Foundation supports PyTorch, vLLM, DeepSpeed, Ray, Helion, and Safetensors. The Agentic AI Foundation lists the Model Context Protocol, goose, AGENTS.md, and A2A among its projects, and LF AI & Data hosts projects such as ONNX.346275
Tax status describes the organization, not the license of what it hosts. The IRS defines a 501(c)(6) business league as an association of persons with a common business interest whose purpose is to promote that interest, not to run a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit. It lists charitable, scientific, and educational purposes among those of 501(c)(3) organizations. Neither status sets a project's terms. PyTorch is distributed under a BSD-style license and vLLM under Apache 2.0. The Model Context Protocol is moving from the MIT License to Apache 2.0 for new code and specification contributions, with documentation under CC BY 4.0.89101112
Nonprofit stewards also work outside the Linux Foundation. EleutherAI describes itself as a non-profit AI research lab that trains and releases open models, datasets, and tools. In this catalog, openness is described per artifact, and an organization is never labeled open because it has released one open-weight model. A steward's nonprofit status and the terms of each project it maintains are therefore recorded separately.1314
What this hub covers
Covers foundations and nonprofit organizations that host, govern, or maintain open AI software, protocols, datasets, and models, including Linux Foundation directed funds. It explains legal form and governance; it does not rate how open a foundation is, and each hosted project's license is recorded on that project's own record. Featured records are examples chosen to cover the subject, not a ranking or a complete list.
Reading path
- Open-source softwareStart with what an open-source software license grants.
- MaintainerWho is accountable for a project, which can differ from who hosts or funds it.
- What open weight and open source meanWhy each component of a release, and each license, has to be read separately.
- How projects qualify for the catalogHow software governed by a U.S. foundation or company becomes eligible.
- How the ecosystem fits togetherWhere foundations sit between companies, research labs, and the projects they share.
- The Linux FoundationThe catalog record for the parent of several directed funds listed here.
- Policy and standards sourcesHow to find and read documents from standards bodies and public agencies.
In the catalog
- Open-source stewardsOrganizations whose records list stewardship of open-source projects as a role.
- Foundation-hosted organizationsDirected funds and other units hosted by a foundation.
- Nonprofit organizationsOrganizations recorded as nonprofits, whatever the terms of their releases.
Featured records
Examples chosen to cover the subject; not a ranking or a complete list.
- The Linux FoundationOrganization
- PyTorch FoundationOrganization
- LF AI & Data FoundationOrganization
- Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)Organization
- EleutherAIOrganization
- MLCommonsOrganization
- Common CrawlOrganization
- LMSYS (Large Model Systems Organization)Organization
- PyTorchOpen model or tool
- vLLMOpen model or tool
- ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange)Open model or tool
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)Open model or tool
Primary documents
- PyTorch Foundation Participation Agreement and Charter (external site: cdn.platform.linuxfoundation.org)The Linux FoundationThe PyTorch Foundation's participation agreement and charter, which define it as a directed fund of the Linux Foundation and leave technical oversight to each project's own charter.
- The Agentic AI Foundation Charter (amended July 29, 2026) (external site: raw.githubusercontent.com)Agentic AI Foundation (GitHub)The Agentic AI Foundation's charter, covering its governing board, project steering committees, and where project trademarks are held.
- The LF AI & Data Foundation Charter (external site: lfaidata.foundation)LF AI & Data FoundationThe LF AI & Data charter, which uses the same directed-fund structure for AI, machine learning, and data projects.
- Business leagues (external site: irs.gov)Internal Revenue ServiceThe IRS description of a 501(c)(6) business league, the tax category the Linux Foundation gives for itself.
- Exempt purposes - Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) (external site: irs.gov)Internal Revenue ServiceThe IRS list of 501(c)(3) exempt purposes, for comparison with business leagues.
- Model Context Protocol LICENSE (external site: raw.githubusercontent.com)Model Context Protocol (GitHub)A hosted project's license file that changes on its own schedule, independent of the foundation's tax status.
- About EleutherAI (external site: eleuther.ai)EleutherAIA nonprofit research lab's own description of what it trains and releases.
Sources · reviewed Oct 1, 2026
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