Meta Donates React and React Native to Linux Foundation, Establishing New React Foundation
Meta transferred ownership of React and React Native to the Linux Foundation in October 2025, marking a historic shift in the governance of one of the world's most widely used front-end development frameworks. The Linux Foundation announced its intent to launch the React Foundation on October 7, 2025, at React Conf in Henderson, Nevada, establishing a neutral home for React, React Native, and supporting projects like JSX.
A New Era of Community-Led Governance
The React Foundation represents a fundamental transformation from corporate-controlled development to vendor-neutral, community-led governance. Seth Webster, who previously served as Head of React at Meta, will lead the foundation as its executive director. The foundation will be governed by a board of directors responsible for directing funds and resources to support React's development, community, and ecosystem.
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, described the move as "a major milestone in open source front-end development, providing sustainable access to the technology critical in creating modern user interfaces". Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, Meta's CTO, emphasized that after 12 years of open source stewardship reaching over 20 million developers, the transition represents the natural evolution for React's long-term sustainability.
Founding Members and Industry Support
Seven technology companies joined as founding corporate members: Amazon, Callstack, Expo, Meta, Microsoft, Software Mansion, and Vercel. These organizations have significantly shaped the React and React Native ecosystems through contributions, tooling, and production deployments at massive scale.
Meta committed to a five-year partnership including over $3 million in funding and dedicated engineering support. Charlie Cheever, co-founder of Expo, emphasized that "this move to a neutral, collaborative home under the Linux Foundation will ensure the long-term health and open governance of the ecosystem". Microsoft highlighted React as "a cornerstone technology powering experiences across many of our products," while Amazon noted the framework's critical role in their devices and services.
Foundation Responsibilities and Mission
The React Foundation will maintain React's infrastructure including GitHub repositories, continuous integration systems, and trademarks. It will organize React Conf and create initiatives to support the broader ecosystem through financial backing of ecosystem projects, issuing grants, and launching programs to expand global collaboration within the developer community.
The foundation's structure ensures no single company can dominate technical decisions. React's technical direction will be determined by an independent technical steering committee (TSC) comprised of contributors and maintainers, separate from the foundation's board. The React team plans to gather community feedback before finalizing the technical governance structure, prioritizing transparency and inclusivity throughout the process.
Impact on the Open Source Ecosystem
Tom Occhino, Vice President of Engineering at Vercel, reflected on React's transformative impact: "React has reshaped software development forever and has helped bring a staggering number of people into software for the first time. Its principles have influenced platforms and tools across the industry". The move to the React Foundation ensures that React remains open, innovative, and community-led for the next generation of developers.
This governance transition aligns React with other major open source projects hosted by the Linux Foundation, providing long-term sustainability and neutral stewardship for technology that powers millions of applications worldwide. The React Foundation's launch signals a commitment to collaborative innovation and ensures that React's future will be shaped by the diverse community of developers and organizations that depend on it daily.