The development project for 'MCP,' a technology that connects AI and apps, will be transferred to the 'Agentic AI Foundation' under the Linux Foundation

On December 10, 2025, Anthropic announced that it would transfer the Model Context Protocol (MCP) developed by the company to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a newly established organization under the Linux Foundation . AAIF was jointly established by Anthropic, OpenAI, and Blockchain, and is supported by Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudflare, Bloomberg, and others. This initiative aims to build a neutral and open ecosystem for the technological development of AI agents that is not dependent on any particular vendor.

Linux Foundation Announces the Formation of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), Anchored by New Project Contributions Including Model Context Protocol (MCP), goose and AGENTS.md – Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)
https://aaif.io/press/linux-foundation-announces-the-formation-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation-aaif-anchored-by-new-project-contributions-including-model-context-protocol-mcp-goose-and-agents-md/

Donating the Model Context Protocol and establishing the Agentic AI Foundation \ Anthropic
https://www.anthropic.com/news/donating-the-model-context-protocol-and-establishing-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation

OpenAI co-founds the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation | OpenAI
https://openai.com/index/agentic-ai-foundation/

Block - Block, Anthropic, and OpenAI Launch the Agentic AI Foundation
https://block.xyz/inside/block-anthropic-and-openai-launch-the-agentic-ai-foundation

MCP was proposed in 2024 as a standard protocol that would enable seamless integration of AI systems with external data sources.

Anthropic proposes and open-sources the 'Model Context Protocol,' a universal protocol for bridging data between existing apps and AI systems.

MCP has rapidly gained popularity, with over 10,000 public MCP servers running in systems ranging from developer tools to systems in Fortune 500 companies. It has also been adopted by major AI products such as ChatGPT, Cursor, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, with SDK downloads for Python and TypeScript exceeding 97 million per month.

In conjunction with this establishment, OpenAI also transferred its standard format, ' AGENTS.md ,' to AAIF. This is a Markdown-formatted file for providing project-specific instructions and context to AI agents, and is already being used in over 60,000 projects.

OpenAI releases AI coding agent 'Codex,' capable of executing multiple tasks in parallel on a cloud-based platform - GIGAZINE

Additionally, Block has transferred ownership of the open source agent framework ' goose .' With this transfer, the three projects - MCP, AGENTS.md, and goose - will now be operated under the neutral management of the Linux Foundation, and community-driven development will continue.

AAIF was established with the goal of preventing fragmentation of AI agent technology and ensuring interoperability. In addition to the founding members, many other companies are also involved in AAIF, including platinum members Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft, and gold members Salesforce and Shopify.

AAIF will be positioned as a 'directed fund' under the management of the Linux Foundation, and the standardization and development of AI agent technology will be promoted under neutral governance. The Linux Foundation has a track record of managing important projects such as the Linux kernel and Kubernetes, and is expected to provide long-term sustainability and transparent governance for AAIF as well.

'Donating MCP to the Linux Foundation as part of the AAIF will ensure that this critical infrastructure for AI remains open, neutral, and community-driven,' said Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. 'We remain committed to supporting and advancing MCP. The Linux Foundation has many years of experience supporting projects that underpin the internet, and this is just the beginning.'