Open source is critical infrastructure, not just a development model

For the OpenInfra community, that's not a pivot — it's alignment with the open source stack we've been defining for years.

The Linux Foundation Member Summit kicked off in Napa (Feb. 24-25, 2026), bringing together leaders from across the open source ecosystem. This was my first time attending, and it comes at a meaningful moment as the OpenInfra Foundation is now part of the Linux Foundation. This made the talks and discussions feel directly relevant, not just to me, but to our OpenInfra Foundation member organizations, many of whom were in attendance.

In the opening keynote, Jim Zemlin, CEO of Linux Foundation, shared that the LF hosted around 120,000 attendees across its events in 2025 and added new members at a pace of roughly three per day. New initiatives are ramping up just as quickly, with AgenticAI Foundation already tracking as the fastest-growing foundation in Linux Foundation history.

It’s become clear that the LF isn’t just supporting open source projects. It has become a foundational layer of the technology ecosystem itself, from hardware to code. That theme carried through the rest of the keynotes and the two days of sessions.

Generally speaking, the conversations here weren’t about individual projects or product launches. They’re about coordination across industries, across regions, and increasingly, across governments. Open source is being treated as critical infrastructure, not just a development model or a cost strategy.

ROI on open source

One of the more interesting keynotes was from Linux Foundation Chief Economist Frank Nagle, who focused on the economics behind open source and AI. The numbers were significant. Open source contributes an estimated $8.8 trillion in value to AI, with about $1.5 trillion tied directly to the open source components underneath it.

What stood out more was the gap between value and adoption. Open models are often cheaper and competitive on performance, yet they remain underutilized. There’s an estimated $25 billion in unrealized value each year simply because organizations aren’t switching.

The reasons aren’t technical, they’re structural: switching costs, brand trust, perceived risk, internal friction. It’s a reminder that price and performance alone don’t determine market outcomes at scale.

The ROI for contributing back is equally compelling. Companies maintaining private forks are spending more than 5,000 engineering hours per release cycle just to keep up. Organizations that contribute upstream aren’t just saving money; they are seeing 2–5x returns on their investment. Nearly 70 percent of companies also report that upstreaming improves hiring and retention. The findings are outlined in this ROI for Open Source Software Contribution report.

AI as a catalyst for open infrastructure

It would be impossible to attend this event without noticing that AI is on everyone’s mind. But what stood out was how the conversation has evolved. Less about models and hype, and more about what it actually takes to run AI in production.

That means talking about the infrastructure underneath it all: data pipelines, GPU infrastructure, orchestration, interoperability—the less glamorous parts of the stack that determine whether any of this actually works.

If you’ve been around the OpenInfra community for a while, these themes will sound familiar. From managing accelerators to securing multi-tenant environments and running infrastructure in regulated industries, these are problems our community has been working on for years. What’s changing now is the amount of attention they’re getting across the broader ecosystem.

Read more: Why open source is critical for the continued advancement of new tech

Digital sovereignty: From policy to leadership

We’ve seen digital sovereignty as a talking point for years in the OpenInfra community, but it’s always been a bit theoretical and difficult. What we’re seeing now is digital sovereignty as a requirement. Governments and enterprises are actively reducing dependency on proprietary platforms while maintaining control and transparency. Open source is central to that shift.

That focus is also reflected in leadership. It was announced that OpenInfra Foundation’s Thierry Carrez will be stepping into the role of General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe. Thierry has spent years focused on digital sovereignty in open source and also serves on the board of the Open Source Initiative. Thierry’s recent keynote OpenInfra Summit Paris in 2025 highlights his thinking and his expanded role reflects the importance of the alignment between infrastructure, policy, and regional strategy.

You can see all of this playing out globally. With Europe leading the way, and Southeast Asia, LATAM, and parts of Africa building their own models based on the EU framework. There’s real momentum behind locally controlled infrastructure built on open technologies. It’s no longer a niche concept, but a baseline requirement as businesses and governments look to retain control of their data and their workforce.

“The spark of collaboration: Scaling OSS sustainability through industry teamwork”

There was also one breakout session that stood out to me in particular. It featured Alyssa Wright Bloomberg, an OpenInfra Foundation Gold Member, and George Chellapa from NVIDIA discussing a collaboration model Bloomberg calls “Sustaining open source.”

The premise is simple but powerful: open source sustainability doesn’t just need money. It needs skilled engineers.

Bloomberg pioneered a mentorship model where internal engineers work directly with open source maintainers and foundations to help address technical debt and advance critical projects. After two successful cohorts working with NumFOCUS and the pandas project, Bloomberg partnered with NVIDIA to test whether the model could scale across organizations.

The results were impressive. In just ten weeks, engineers from both companies contributed more than 1,000 volunteer hours and delivered over 70 improvements to pandas.

What makes the program particularly interesting is how the impact multiplies. The volunteer engineering hours are matched with donations from each company’s philanthropic arm, meaning the work benefits the project technically, financially, and socially. Contributors gain mentorship and real open source experience, maintainers get meaningful help on long-standing issues, and nonprofit foundations receive financial support.

More importantly, the program shows what can happen when organizations move from isolated contributions to coordinated collaboration.

For the OpenInfra Foundation, this kind of model is especially compelling. It demonstrates how companies can strengthen critical digital infrastructure together without needing to control it. It’s exactly the kind of collaborative engagement we hope to build more of across our community, and I’m particularly excited to explore how we might work more closely with Bloomberg on initiatives like this going forward.

Other topics of interest

Security was another consistent theme, especially around trust in the software supply chain. Identity, provenance, and verification are moving into the core of how systems are built and operated. These aren’t edge concerns anymore. 

There were also important conversations around sustainability, particularly around the people behind open source. As dependency grows, so does the need to invest back into the maintainers and communities that make this ecosystem possible.

What makes the Member Summit valuable is how all of this comes together. You get a clear picture of how organizations are thinking about open source and where things are heading.

My key takeaway

Open source is operating at a different level now. It’s tied directly to national priorities, economic strategy, and the next generation of infrastructure. For those of us in the OpenInfra community, that’s not a pivot, it’s alignment.

The focus on compute, control, transparency, and interoperability is exactly where we’ve been operating. Being part of the Linux Foundation ecosystem creates even more opportunity for our community to connect that work into larger efforts.

I feel lucky to be a part of this broad coalition of open source foundations and organizations that are leading the way. Open source is no longer just part of the stack. It is defining the stack. The question is no longer ‘why open source?’ but ‘how quickly can we align our strategy with the infrastructure that now powers the world?’

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