In a historic move for the open source community, React and React Native—two of the world's most popular JavaScript frameworks—announced their transition to the newly formed React Foundation under the Linux Foundation. This landmark decision, revealed at React Conf 2025 on October 7, marks a pivotal shift toward vendor-neutral governance for technologies that power over 55 million websites and serve 20 million developers globally.
Meta, the original creator of React, is committing to a five-year partnership that includes over $3 million in funding and dedicated engineering support, while simultaneously opening the door for broader industry participation. The React Foundation's governing board will initially include representatives from Amazon, Callstack, Expo, Meta, Microsoft, Software Mansion, and Vercel, with plans to expand further over time.
What is the React Foundation?
The React Foundation is a new organization within the Linux Foundation dedicated to stewarding the React ecosystem, including React, React Native, JSX, and related supporting projects. The foundation will operate with a dual governance structure—separating business and technical decisions to ensure both sustainability and innovation.
🏛️ Business Governance
- ✅ Governing board with industry representation
- ✅ Infrastructure maintenance and funding
- ✅ React Conf organization and community events
- ✅ Ecosystem growth initiatives
- ✅ Strategic partnerships and collaborations
⚙️ Technical Governance
- ✅ Maintainer-driven decision making
- ✅ RFC (Request for Comments) process
- ✅ Contributor-focused governance
- ✅ Technical roadmap and priorities
- ✅ Code review and release management
🔑 Key Principle: Vendor-Neutral Stewardship
The Linux Foundation's decades-long expertise in fostering vendor-neutral environments ensures that React's evolution will be guided by community needs rather than any single company's interests, similar to successful projects like Kubernetes, Node.js, and Linux itself.
📊 React's Global Impact: By the Numbers
Powering modern web experiences globally
Building with React and React Native
React Native package installs
🌍 Who Uses React?
React powers some of the world's most visited and critical applications:
💼 Enterprise
- • Microsoft (Office 365)
- • Bloomberg
- • Salesforce
- • IBM
🛒 E-commerce
- • Shopify
- • Walmart
- • Airbnb
- • Uber Eats
📱 Social & Media
- • Facebook/Meta
- • Netflix
- • Discord
🏛️ Governing Board: Who's at the Table?
The React Foundation's initial governing board brings together companies that have collectively invested billions in React-based infrastructure and employ thousands of React developers. This diverse representation ensures balanced decision-making that serves the broader ecosystem.
Meta
Original CreatorCommitting $3M+ over 5 years plus dedicated full-time engineering team. React remains Meta's primary UI development tool across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus platforms.
Microsoft
Uses React extensively in Office 365, VS Code UI extensions, and Azure Portal. Major contributor to React Native Windows for desktop applications.
Amazon
Employs React across AWS Console, Prime Video interface, and Alexa web properties. Significant investment in React Native for cross-platform development.
Vercel
Creators of Next.js, the most popular React framework. Vercel's platform hosts millions of React applications and drives significant React ecosystem innovation.
Expo
Leading React Native development platform and toolchain, making mobile development accessible to millions of developers worldwide.
Callstack
React Native core contributor and consulting leader, maintaining critical ecosystem libraries and tools.
Software Mansion
Major React Native contributor, creators of popular libraries like React Native Reanimated and React Native Gesture Handler.
📈 Expansion Plans
The foundation intends to expand the governing board over time to include additional companies and community representatives, ensuring continued diversity of perspective and investment in React's future.
💰 Meta's $3 Million Commitment: What It Means
💵 Financial Support
- 💲 $3M+ over 5 years for infrastructure, events, and ecosystem growth
- 🏗️ Funding for continuous infrastructure maintenance and scaling
- 🎤 Support for React Conf and community events worldwide
👨💻 Engineering Resources
- 👥 Full-time dedicated team of Meta engineers working on React and React Native
- 🔬 Continued research and innovation in UI frameworks and tooling
- 📚 Investment in documentation and developer experience improvements
🎯 Strategic Alignment
Meta's continued investment demonstrates React's critical importance to its own platform strategy while simultaneously benefiting from community-driven innovation. React will remain Meta's primary UI development tool across all platforms, ensuring alignment of interests between Meta's needs and the broader developer community.
"We believe the best of React is yet to come. The React Foundation will unlock new opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and growth."
🚀 What This Means for Developers and Companies
👨💻 For Individual Developers
- ✅ Long-term stability: Vendor-neutral governance reduces single-company risk
- ✅ Enhanced transparency: Clear technical and business decision-making processes
- ✅ Career confidence: Increased investment signals React's continued relevance
- ✅ More opportunities: Expanded contribution pathways beyond Meta
- ✅ Better resources: Improved documentation, tooling, and community support
🏢 For Enterprises and Startups
- ✅ Reduced adoption risk: Multi-company backing ensures continuity
- ✅ Influence opportunities: Potential for direct participation in governance
- ✅ Ecosystem growth: Increased investment in tooling and integrations
- ✅ Compliance confidence: Neutral foundation structure aids legal/procurement processes
- ✅ Predictable roadmap: Community-driven priorities over single-vendor interests
🌐 For the Open Source Ecosystem
- ✅ Model for other projects: Demonstrates successful transition from corporate to foundation governance
- ✅ Increased collaboration: Easier cross-company contributions and partnerships
- ✅ Financial sustainability: Diversified funding model reduces dependency
- ✅ Standards alignment: Better integration with web platform standards processes
- ✅ Community empowerment: More democratic decision-making structures
⚙️ Technical Governance: How Decisions Will Be Made
One of the most significant aspects of the React Foundation is the establishment of a new technical governance structure that separates technical decision-making from business considerations, ensuring that code quality and community needs drive the project's evolution.
🔧 Technical Decision Framework
1️⃣ Maintainer-Driven Decisions
Core maintainers—those with deep technical expertise and track records of significant contributions—will guide technical direction, architecture decisions, and code review processes.
- Maintainers selected based on contribution history and technical expertise
- Decision-making authority proportional to areas of expertise
- Transparent selection process for new maintainers
2️⃣ RFC (Request for Comments) Process
Major changes to React and React Native will continue using the established RFC process, allowing community input and ensuring thoughtful evolution.
- Public proposal phase with community discussion
- Technical review by maintainers and domain experts
- Implementation guidance and consensus building
3️⃣ Contributor Pathways
Clear paths for community members to increase involvement, from first-time contributors to core maintainers, with mentorship and recognition programs.
- Good first issue labeling for new contributors
- Mentorship programs pairing experienced and new developers
- Recognition and progression for consistent contributors
🔍 Transparency and Accountability
All technical discussions, decisions, and governance changes will be documented publicly, ensuring transparency and allowing community members to understand how and why decisions are made. Meeting notes, RFC discussions, and roadmap priorities will be accessible to all developers.
📱 React Native: A First-Class Citizen
Notably, React Native is explicitly included in the React Foundation's scope, elevating it to equal status with React itself. This recognition reflects React Native's critical importance in the mobile development landscape and ensures continued investment in cross-platform capabilities.
📊 React Native Impact
🌍 React Native Platforms
🔮 Looking Forward: The Future of React
The React Foundation represents more than a governance change—it's a commitment to React's next decade of growth and innovation. With vendor-neutral stewardship, increased transparency, and multi-company backing, React is positioned to continue leading frontend development well into the future.
🎯 What to Watch:
- 🔄 Server Components maturation: Continued evolution of React Server Components for improved performance
- ⚡ Concurrent rendering: Advancements in concurrent features and automatic batching
- 🧰 Developer tooling: Enhanced debugging, profiling, and development experience
- 🌐 Web standards alignment: Closer integration with evolving web platform APIs
- 📱 React Native parity: Reducing gaps between web and native development experiences
- 🤝 Ecosystem collaboration: Partnerships with framework authors, tooling providers, and platforms
💡 Foundation Initiatives
The React Foundation will launch new initiatives to support the ecosystem:
- 🎓 Educational programs: Free courses, certifications, and learning paths
- 🏆 Community recognition: Awards and spotlights for contributors and projects
- 💰 Grant programs: Funding for ecosystem tools, libraries, and infrastructure
- 🗓️ Events expansion: More React Conf locations and community meetups globally
- 📚 Documentation overhaul: Comprehensive, multilingual, and accessibility-focused docs
🎯 Key Takeaways
- 1️⃣ Vendor-Neutral Governance: React transitions from Meta-owned to community-governed under the Linux Foundation, reducing single-company risk
- 2️⃣ Meta's Continued Commitment: $3M+ funding over 5 years plus dedicated engineering team shows ongoing investment
- 3️⃣ Industry-Wide Support: Governing board includes Amazon, Microsoft, Vercel, Expo, and other major players
- 4️⃣ Massive Impact: Affects 55 million websites and 20 million developers globally
- 5️⃣ Long-Term Stability: Foundation model ensures React's sustainability for decades to come
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