Wikipedia has announced partnerships with several big tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, marking a major step up in the non-profit’s ability to monetise tech firms’ reliance on its content. This announcement, released on Thursday, coincides with a monumental milestone: the internet’s encyclopedia is officially 25 years old today (January 15, 2026).
For a platform that started in 2001 as a chaotic experiment in “crowdsourcing,” this new business arrangement signals a mature evolution. After years of Silicon Valley using Wikipedia’s data for free to train search engines and AI models, the non-profit has finally established a formal, paid toll gate for the heavy hitters.
For 20 years, companies like Google and Microsoft copied content from Wikipedia by using automated bots. This was legal, but it overloaded Wikipedia’s servers and provided tech companies with free resources for their products. That is changing now.
Google was the first to act, signing a deal with Wikimedia Enterprise in 2022. On Thursday, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon also announced they have become official customers. Microsoft runs Copilot, and Meta manages Facebook and Llama, while Amazon oversees Alexa and AWS.
This new agreement also includes AI search engines like Perplexity and Mistral AI. These companies will now pay to access Wikipedia’s content through a fast, specialised API (Application Programming Interface).
What Are They Actually Buying?
It’s important to clarify that these companies are not buying the copyright to Wikipedia. Wikipedia will still be free and open-source for everyone. What these companies are paying for is faster and more reliable access to information.
Imagine Wikipedia is a public library.
- The Old Way: Tech companies sent many interns (bots) to copy every book, causing congestion in the hallways.
- The New Way: Now, they pay for a direct digital connection. When a fact on Wikipedia changes (like when a new President is sworn in), these companies receive the update instantly in a format their computers can understand.
Lane Becker, the President of Wikimedia Enterprise, explained that this ensures the data feeding the world’s AIs is “trustworthy, human-created knowledge.”
Why This Matters for AI
The timing of this deal is important because we are in an intense competition over AI development. Chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini have a major problem: they sometimes provide false information, known as “hallucinations.” To fix this issue, they need accurate information – facts verified by humans.
Wikipedia is the largest source of human-verified facts available. By paying for official access, companies aim to prevent their AIs from making errors. They are securing the essential material for their AIs: accurate information.
Celebrating 25 Years of Survival
It’s fitting that this achievement comes as Wikipedia marks its 25th birthday. Launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, Wikipedia was widely believed to fail. Critics thought that a website anyone could edit would turn into a place full of misinformation.
Instead, 25 years later, Wikipedia often stands out as one of the few places on the internet not trying to sell you something or collect your personal data.
- It has over 60 million articles.
- It is available in over 300 languages.
- It is still run by a non-profit (Wikimedia Foundation) and funded by donations.
Will It Still Be Free for Us?
Yes, the website will still be 100% free for everyone. The money from Big Tech helps keep the free version available. This way, the foundation does not have to depend only on the “Please donate $3” ads we see every December.
As the internet becomes filled with AI-generated content, Wikipedia has taken on a new role. It is now more than just an encyclopedia; it serves as the “human anchor” of the web. Now, the digital tools that use this anchor help pay for its upkeep.
