Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are paying up for ‘enterprise’ access to Wikipedia
Big Tech funds Wikipedia because they're big users
· TechRadarNews By Craig Hale published 16 January 2026
(Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Tero Vesalainen) Share Share by:
Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google
- Big Tech, AI firms, and search engines all help to fund Wikipedia
- The Wikimedia Foundation has seven data centers globally
- Perplexity has gifted Wikipedia editors 2,500 free Enterprise seats
Tech giants including Ecosia, Microsoft, Mistral AI, Perplexity, Pleias, and ProRata are some of the latest companies to have signed up to pay the Wikimedia Foundation an undisclosed amount for premium access to Wikipedia content, the body announced in a post to commemorate its 25-year anniversary.
Amazon, Google, and Meta, some of the Foundation's earlier members, have already been using the commercial API to to "access content from Wikimedia projects at a volume and speed."
This revenue is designed to support Wikimedia's nonprofit mission and long-term sustainability, but there's also a bigger AI story at play.
Wikimedia funded by Big Tech subscriptions
The Foundation stressed AI firms rely heavily on Wikipedia, so have a vested interest in keeping it funded. Considered a core dataset for LLM training, Wikipedia is partly responsible for powering chatbots, search engines, and voice assistants globally.
Wikimedia Foundation CPO/CTO Selena Deckelmann stressed the importance of Wikipedia's "human-powered knowledge" in the era of AI. "Wikipedia shows that knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans."
In a post remarking Wikimedia's 25th anniversary, Perplexity noted it would be gifting 2,500 Enterprise seats to Wikipedia editors to show its appreciation for their output.
There are an estimated 250,000 volunteer editors contributing to the platform, which launched in 2001.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors