Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation empowers a global community with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment that drives open source collaboration and innovation, providing vendor-neutral governance for open source projects.
At a Glance
- Automotive manufacturers and suppliers (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Bosch, ZF, Valeo, CARIAD, Elektrobit)
- Enterprise software developers and organizations
- Cloud service providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Cloud)
- Technology companies (IBM, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, Huawei, Fujitsu)
- +10 more
AI Tools by Eclipse Foundation
(1)Eclipse LMOS
Enterprise AI Agent Platform
Discussions
No discussions yet
Be the first to start a discussion about Eclipse Foundation
Latest News
OpenHW Foundation unveils the first industry-ready RISC-V ecosystem to advance European digital sovereignty
Automotive innovation through open collaboration: momentum builds around open source software as a key driver of efficiency and success
Eclipse Dataspace Working Group advances two open protocols toward global ISO/IEC standardisation
Eclipse S-CORE project unites with Qualcomm to advance open source middleware for next-gen vehicles
Products & Services
Industry-leading integrated development environment for Java, C/C++, and other programming languages. Features include support for latest Java versions, extensible plugin architecture, code completion, refactoring, debugging with lambda breakpoints, and native compilation support.
Enterprise Java platform for building secure, scalable, and portable cloud-native Java applications. Evolved from Java EE with specifications for Servlet, Persistence, CDI, RESTful Web Services, Security, Transactions, and more. Jakarta EE 11 released in June 2025.
Open, flexible framework for building cloud and desktop IDEs with AI capabilities. Won 2025 CODiE Award for Best Open Source Development Tool.
Real-time operating system (RTOS) for embedded systems, contributed by Microsoft in 2023. Part of Eclipse's embedded and IoT portfolio.
Market Position
Eclipse Foundation differentiates itself as a vendor-neutral, community-driven organization with transparent governance. Unlike proprietary platforms or single-vendor-controlled foundations, Eclipse provides IP management, legal compliance support, and a business-friendly environment for collaborative innovation. The foundation's European base (Brussels) positions it uniquely for organizations seeking digital sovereignty and compliance with EU regulations like the Cyber Resilience Act. With 400+ projects and 300+ members, it offers one of the largest open source ecosystems. The shared-cost innovation model allows companies to pool resources on common challenges while maintaining competitive differentiation in their products.
Leadership
Founders
Eclipse Foundation was created by the community
Originally started as the Eclipse Project by IBM in November 2001, then transformed into an independent foundation in 2004 with support from a consortium of software vendors including IBM, Borland, HP, Intel, QNX, and SAP.
Executive Team
Mike Milinkovich
Executive Director
Has been Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation since 2004. Also serves as a director of the Open Source Initiative. Responsible for supporting both the Eclipse open source community and its commercial ecosystem.
Gaël Blondelle
Chief Membership Officer
Board of Directors
Founding Story
The Eclipse Project was originally created by IBM in November 2001 and supported by a consortium of software vendors. The Eclipse Foundation was formally established on February 2, 2004, to create a vendor-neutral, open, and transparent community environment. The goal was to establish an independent steward for the Eclipse community that would provide intellectual property (IP) management, ecosystem development, and IT infrastructure. In 2020, the foundation moved its legal jurisdiction to the European Union, becoming a Belgian AISBL to better serve its global community.
Business Model
Revenue Model
Member-supported non-profit organization generating revenue through membership dues (35.9%), working group fees (45.7%), EU grant funding (6.5%), conference revenue (3.0%), and other sources (9.0%). The foundation provides shared-cost innovation model allowing companies to build commercial products on open source technologies while sharing development costs.
Pricing Tiers
Seat on Board of Directors and Architecture Council, General Assembly voting rights, logo promotion, ad hoc IP analysis, assistance launching open source initiatives, event discounts, marketing/advertising access
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Representation on Board of Directors, eligibility to stand for board elections, General Assembly voting rights, event discounts, marketing programs access
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Same benefits as above tier
Access to mailing lists, attendance at member meetings, guest membership in select Working Groups, use of foundation member logo
Same benefits as paid Associate tier
Board representation and election eligibility, General Assembly attendance, influence over licensing and governing policies. Available to active project contributors.
Target Markets
- Automotive manufacturers and suppliers (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Bosch, ZF, Valeo, CARIAD, Elektrobit)
- Enterprise software developers and organizations
- Cloud service providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Cloud)
- Technology companies (IBM, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, Huawei, Fujitsu)
- IoT and embedded systems developers
- Aerospace and space agencies (European Space Agency, NASA contributors)
- Enterprise Java application development
- Cloud-native and microservices architectures
- Automotive and software-defined vehicles (SDV)
- Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing
- Embedded systems and real-time operating systems (RTOS)
- Industrial automation and Industry 4.0
- IBM
- Microsoft
- Oracle
- Red Hat