Linux Foundation now spends only 2% of their revenue on Linux

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Spending on A.I. is roughly 6 times that of Linux.

Bryan Lunduke

December 26, 2023

The Linux Foundation has released their 2023 Annual Report... and it is an absolute doozy.

The first big headline?

As of 2023, The Linux Foundation now spends just 2% -- that's two percent -- of their revenue on their namesake: The Linux Kernel.

That's a mighty small slice of the pie...

Ask yourself this: If there is a foundation named after a specific thing... what percentage of that foundation's revenue would you expect to be spent on said thing?

Let's say... "Save the Orange Trees Foundation". How much of their revenue should be spent on, you know, orange trees? 100%? 50%? 10%?

If "Save the Orange Trees" only spent 2% on "saving Orange Trees"... would you think that something was amis? Of course you would. And you would quickly wonder what non-Orange-Tree related things that foundation is funding.

With that in mind, let's look at Linux Foundaiton funding of Linux... compared to their investments in "Blockchains" and "Artificial Intelligence".

Maybe they should rename themselves to "The A.I. Foundation".

Your eyes do not deceive you.

Linux : 2%
Blockchain : 4%
A.I. : 12%

The Linux Foundation spends roughly twice as much on Blockchain as they do on Linux... and roughly six times as much on Artificial Intelligence.

And, lest you think this is merely a blip -- and that, surely, Linux support will go up the next year -- recent history would strongly suggest otherwise. This is a singificant drop from the 2022 numbers.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

"Now wait a second," you exclaim! "Just because the revenue percentage spent on Linux is down... that doesn't necessarily mean that the total numbers are down! The Linux Foundation is growing! Maybe the total amount spent actually went up while the percentage went down?"

While it's true that The Linux Foundaiton continues to grow substantially -- now bringing in over a quarter of a Billion dollars per year (seriously) -- the total amount spent on the Linux kernel dropped roughly $400,000 in 2023. (Not surprising as The Lunduke Journal previously pointed out that lowering the total support of Linux appeared to be the goal.)

The percentage of The Linux Foundation revenue spent on Linux dropped in 2023.
And the total amount spent dropped as well.
All while funding of non-Linux projects (such as AI and Blockchain) continued to dominate.

While this is the first big headline to come out of the Linux Foundation 2023 report... there's more to report on -- where The Linux Foundation revenue comes from and where it is spent.

The Lunduke Journal continues to research and dig into the 2023 filings of The Linux Foundaiton. There's a lot of weirdness in here... and we're going to get to the bottom of it.

Stay tuned.

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Shiftkey@Shiftkey

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Controversial opinion.

I think Lunduke is wrong on Rust.

I has clearly been adopted by the next generation. It can plug in very nicely into various ecosystems and tools. I am planning to adopt it as well for app development (logic part, not the view).

At the end of the day, if modern kids, people etc want to use Rust then it makes sense for the projects to start exploring it and investing in it today.

Not doing so might lead to old timers retiring without anyone left to replace them.

Rust is not a bad language at all. It definitely has a bad reputation for the way it was being pushed a few years back. But honestly, I don't see those "rewrite in Rust" mobs much these days.

U see people doing amazing projects and organic adoption skyrocketing.

That's why I don't think adding Rust into traditionaly C code bases is a bad idea.
It prepares the project for the "changing of the guard".

This was always bound to happen some day if not Rust then Zig or something else but as it turned out, it's Rust.

Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke

January 31, 2026

$89 Lifetime Offer Ends at Midnight!

I’ll make this quick: The $89 Lifetime Subscription offer for The Lunduke Journal ends at midnight tonight (Saturday, January 31st).

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If you were on contemplating grabbing that Lifetime Sub, I’d jump on it right now. The price goes back up to normal ($300) in about 12 hours or so.

Get it while it’s cheap!

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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke

January 30, 2026

The End of the $89 Lifetime Sub is Nigh!

Quick reminder: The massive deal The Lunduke Journal has been running — 70%+ off Lifetime Subscriptions, 50% off all other subscriptions — ends after tomorrow (Saturday, January 31st).

Considering that, here are the steps I recommend:

Grab the $89 Lifetime Subscription before it ends tomorrow night.
High five yourself for saving money and supporting Indie Tech Journalism.
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Bryan Lunduke@Lunduke

January 25, 2026

$89 Lifetime Lunduke Subs ends this week!

Quick heads up, that the $89 Lifetime Subscription to The Lunduke Journal discount ends… at the end of this week!

Discounting Lifetime Subscriptions by over 70% was an absolute blast. So many of you took advantage of the offer that we’re now up to four Lifetime Subscriber walls at the end of every video. Crazy!

But something that awesome can’t last forever. Which means that, in just a few days, Lifetime Subscriptions will return to their regular price of $300.

With no plans to do another wild discount like that any time soon.

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My guess is, a the current rate, that 4th Lifetime Wall will be full by Friday.

Bonkers.

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