cloudparts

React Foundation

The Linux Foundation home that took React, React Native and JSX over from Meta in February 2026. A members’ board runs the money and infrastructure; React’s maintainers keep technical direction.

2 projects in this catalogPart of the Linux FoundationWebsite

What it is

The React Foundation owns React, React Native and supporting projects such as JSX, which until February 24, 2026 belonged to Meta. Legally it is a series of LF Projects, LLC, the Linux Foundation’s company for hosting open-source projects, and its job is to look after React’s infrastructure (GitHub, CI and trademarks), run React Conf and fund the wider ecosystem. Its eight Platinum founding members are Amazon, Callstack, Expo, Huawei, Meta, Microsoft, Software Mansion and Vercel, and its executive director is Seth Webster, who led the React team at Meta. Meta committed to a five-year partnership with more than $3 million in funding and kept a full-time team of engineers working on React and React Native.

Business and technical decisions are deliberately split. A board of directors, with a representative from each member, directs money and resources. Technical direction stays with the people who maintain and contribute to React: the React team wrote that its technical governance “will always be independent from the React Foundation board”, and a provisional leadership council was set up at launch to design it. In October 2026 the foundation’s site described a Technical Steering Committee for technical direction but named no members, and the React blog had not yet published the final structure.

For someone choosing a technology, the badge means React and React Native no longer depend on one company’s goodwill: the names, repositories and trademarks sit with a neutral non-profit funded by several companies that build on them, while Meta remains the largest contributor. The foundation has no maturity stages. It also tracks 65 libraries across the React ecosystem for sponsorship, but those stay independent projects with their own owners.

Its projects in this catalog

ReactOpen sourceContributed by Meta, which still employs a full-time React teamThe JavaScript library for building interfaces from components: functions that return JSX, re-rendered when their state changes, with the same model on the web, on the server and, through React Native, on phones.React NativeOpen sourceContributed by Meta together with ReactReact for Android and iOS apps: JavaScript runs in the Hermes engine inside the app, and React components become real platform views, with JavaScript and native code calling each other directly through JSI.

In depth

What has moved so far#

The foundation launched with a list of work still to do: finalise React’s technical governance, transfer repositories, websites and other infrastructure, set up programmes for the ecosystem and plan the next React Conf. By June 2026 most React repositories had moved from the facebook GitHub organisation to a new react organisation, among them React, React Native, Yoga, JSX, Metro, React Strict DOM and Create React App; old links redirect.

Its site, react.foundation, sends companies to Linux Foundation enrolment to join and individuals to contribute to the repositories or sponsor tracked libraries through their own sponsorship pages. It promises quarterly public reports on money raised and maintainer funding once funded work has started; none had been published by October 2026.

Where it came from2013–2026

Jordan Walke built React at Facebook, which used it in News Feed from 2011 and open-sourced it in May 2013; React Native followed in 2015. Both stayed Meta projects for more than a decade, under MIT since 2017, with Meta employing the core team and holding the trademarks.

On October 7, 2025, at React Conf in Henderson, Nevada, the Linux Foundation announced its intent to launch a React Foundation, and Meta said React, React Native and JSX would move to it. The seven founding members were Amazon, Callstack, Expo, Meta, Microsoft, Software Mansion and Vercel; the LF’s announcement said React ran on nearly 55 million websites and was used by 20 million developers. Meta’s engineering blog promised more than $3 million over five years.

The foundation launched on February 24, 2026 at the Linux Foundation Member Summit in Napa, California, with Huawei as an eighth Platinum member, and from that day React, React Native and JSX were no longer owned by Meta. Moving the repositories to the new react GitHub organisation followed in June.

Why it’s built this way

Separate the board from technical direction
The React team wanted technical decisions made by the people who maintain and contribute to React, not by whichever companies pay the most, so the funding board has no say over the code.
One foundation for React and React Native
React Native renders React components as native views, so the two share their component model and much of their community; three founding members, Expo, Callstack and Software Mansion, build mainly on React Native.
A home under the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin called a neutral home “the natural next step” for React. The LF already provides the legal, trademark and membership structure for projects such as Kubernetes and PyTorch, so React didn’t need to build its own.

Timeline

  1. 2013

    Facebook open-sources React in May

  2. 2015

    React Native open-sourced

  3. 2025

    Intent to form the React Foundation announced at React Conf on October 7

  4. 2026

    Launched on February 24 with eight Platinum members; repositories move to the react GitHub organisation in June

Sources · facts checked 2026-10-28

Improve this page on GitHub