- Open source software is now worth an estimated $7.7 billion per year
- The average organizational expenditure is well over half a million
- Most investments are in the form of human labor, not cash
The continued rise in popularity of open source software (OSS) has made it a multi-billion dollar industry attracting investment from companies around the world, new research shows.
The Funding study on open source software from 2024 found organizations around the world contribute an estimated $7.7 billion annually to open source projects.
The research, from Github, the Linux Foundation and Harvard University, shows a clear divide: most (86%) investments come in the form of employee time. Only 14% were direct financial contributions.
Companies support open source
The study used data from 501 survey respondents, who together contribute $1.7 billion to OSS annually. The organization’s median expenditure on OSS was estimated at over $520,000 – $345,000 in labor and $175,000 in direct financial contributions.
More than half (57%) of direct financial contributions went to contractors, while less than a fifth went to specific projects (17%) and foundations (16%). Communities (4%), administrators (4%) and bounty platforms (1%) also received cash injections.
However, it also created so-called blind spots in the field of investments. More than two in three (68%) did not answer how much financial support they provided to the various OSS goals, and almost four in five (78%) were unwilling (or unable) to share how much of the their organization is intended for. OSS.
Despite efforts to quantify the market, the numbers come from a handful of organizations and represent only an estimate, or best guess. That’s why the researchers are calling on employees to self-report contributions and incorporate contribution tracking into organizational workflows.
That said, there is a clear understanding that open source software helps drive innovation, and GitHub, the Linux Foundation, and Harvard want to encourage better monitoring and transparency to ensure the sustainability of OSS into the future.