Linux Foundation Announces $12.5 Million in Grant Funding from Leading Organizations to Advance Open Source Security

Anthropic, Amazon Web Services (AWS), GitHub, Google, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and OpenAI Join Forces with the Foundation to Invest in Sustainable Security Solutions for the Open Source Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced $12.5 million in total grants from Anthropic, AWS, GitHub, Google, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and OpenAI to strengthen the security of the open source software ecosystem. The funding will be managed by Alpha-Omega and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), trusted security initiatives within the Linux Foundation, to develop long-term, sustainable security solutions that support open source communities worldwide.

As the security landscape grows more complex, advances in AI are dramatically increasing the speed and scale of vulnerability discovery in open source software. Maintainers are now facing an unprecedented influx of security findings, many of which are generated by automated systems, without the resources or tooling needed to triage and remediate them effectively. Through this investment, Alpha-Omega and OpenSSF will work directly with maintainers and their communities to make emerging security capabilities accessible, practical, and aligned with existing project workflows. The effort will support sustainable strategies that help maintainers manage growing security demands while improving the overall resilience of the open source ecosystem.

"Alpha-Omega was built on the idea that open source security should be both normal and achievable. By funding audits and embedding security experts directly into the ecosystem, we've proven that targeted investment works," said Michael Winser, Co-Founder of Alpha-Omega. "Now, we're scaling that expertise. We are excited to bring maintainer-centric AI security assistance to the hundreds of thousands of projects that power our world."

"Grant funding alone is not going to help solve the problem that AI tools are causing today on open source security teams," said Greg Kroah-Hartman of the Linux kernel project. "OpenSSF has the active resources needed to support numerous projects that will help these overworked maintainers with the triage and processing of the increased AI-generated security reports they are currently receiving."

"Our commitment remains focused: to sustainably secure the entire lifecycle of open source software," said Steve Fernandez, General Manager of OpenSSF. "By directly empowering the maintainers, we have an extraordinary opportunity to ensure that those at the front lines of software security have the tools and standards to take preventative measures to stay ahead of issues and build a more resilient ecosystem for everyone."

To learn more about open source security initiatives at the Linux Foundation, please visit openssf.org and alpha-omega.dev.

Supporting Quotes
"The open source ecosystem underpins nearly every software system in the world, and its security can't be taken for granted. This investment reflects our belief that the best way to improve security outcomes is to work directly with maintainers and give them the resources and tooling to address threats at scale. Ensuring the world safely navigates the transition to transformative AI means investing in the foundations it runs on."
– Vitaly Gudanets, CISO, Anthropic

"Over the past four years, our work with Alpha-Omega has proven it can deliver real results for the open source ecosystem at scale—from helping the Rust Foundation deploy Trusted Publishing to enabling critical vulnerability fixes across Node.js and PyPI. We are excited to increase our investment in Alpha-Omega and to work with our collaborators and directly with maintainers to provide not just funding, but the right tools and expertise that projects actually need to handle AI-generated security reports at scale."
— Mark Ryland, Director, AWS Security

"Building on our initial commitment alongside Google and Microsoft four years ago, we're now confronting new security challenges as AI transforms vulnerability discovery. That's why AWS is investing an additional $2.5 million in Alpha-Omega. We believe the same advanced models creating these challenges can also solve them through better tooling and automation, but only through collaboration between industry leaders and the open source security community."
— Stormy Peters, Head of Open Source Strategy and Marketing, Amazon Web Services 

"As the home for open source, GitHub knows that code is only as strong as the community behind it. Supporting the Linux Foundation's Alpha-Omega initiative extends our longstanding commitment to securing the global software supply chain. Through funding, training, and AI-powered tools, we're empowering maintainers to identify risks faster and prevent burnout."
— Kyle Daigle, COO, GitHub

"Securing the open source ecosystem is a shared responsibility that requires more than just capital, it also requires giving maintainers the right tools to stay ahead of evolving threats. By combining AI-driven innovation with the proven frameworks of Alpha-Omega and OpenSSF, we are empowering the community to not just react to threats, but build systemic resilience."
— Evan Kotsovinos, Vice President of Privacy, Safety and Security, Google

"Securing open source is a shared responsibility, and we have to move as fast as the technology does. We're focused on turning AI's ability to find and patch vulnerabilities into a massive defensive advantage. Supporting Alpha-Omega and OpenSSF is an important step for us, right alongside our work on OSS-Fuzz, Big Sleep and CodeMender. We're going to keep building on this to put these capabilities into the hands of maintainers, leveraging AI to help scale society's collective resistance to cyber attacks."
— Four Flynn, VP, Security and Privacy, Google DeepMind

"Open source software is a critical part of the modern technology landscape. As AI accelerates both software development and the discovery of vulnerabilities, the industry must step up to protect this shared infrastructure. This collaboration represents an important step in democratizing AI-powered defenses, and we're proud to support Alpha-Omega and the OpenSSF in delivering scalable, maintainer-first solutions that secure the code powering our digital society."
— Mark Russinovich, CTO, Deputy CISO and Technical Fellow, Microsoft Azure

"This is a critical moment for global cybersecurity that requires unprecedented levels of collaboration across the industry, and sustained commitment. For artificial intelligence to benefit us all, we need to listen closely to maintainers and strengthen the open source foundations we all depend on. Maintainers make an extraordinary contribution, and this program is an important step in providing them the support they need."
— Dane Stuckey, CISO, OpenAI

About Alpha-Omega
Alpha-Omega protects society by funding and catalyzing sustainable security across open source software. With over 70 grants totalling over $20M across major ecosystems, package registries, and individual projects, Alpha-Omega has an established track record of "turning money into security." Backed by Anthropic, AWS, Citi, GitHub, Google, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and OpenAI, Alpha-Omega partners with maintainers, security experts, and communities to invest where it can have the greatest impact. For more information, visit us at alpha-omega.dev.

About the OpenSSF
The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) is a cross-industry organization at the Linux Foundation that brings together the industry's most important open source security initiatives and the individuals and companies that support them. The OpenSSF is committed to collaboration and working both upstream and with existing communities to advance open source security for all. For more information, please visit us at openssf.org.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects, including Linux, Kubernetes, Model Context Protocol (MCP), OpenChain, OpenSearch, OpenSSF, OpenStack, PyTorch, Ray, RISC-V, SPDX and Zephyr, provide the foundation for global infrastructure. The Linux Foundation is focused on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

Media Contact
Grace Lucier
The Linux Foundation
[email protected]

SOURCE The Linux Foundation