As Wikipedia celebrates its 25th anniversary, several global tech giants are competing to pay for their "enterprise-level" data access rights. Following Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, AI newcomer Perplexity, and Mistral AI have officially joined the Wikimedia Enterprise program.

This paid plan, launched by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2021, aims to provide large commercial companies with customized API interfaces. According to the foundation's senior director of revenue, the service will re-tune and structure the vast amount of Wikipedia article data according to the specific needs of AI companies, making it easier for model training and commercial use.

Although Meta and Amazon were already on the list of partners, this is the first time the collaboration has been disclosed publicly. The Wikimedia Foundation stated that this revenue will directly support the long-term operations of the non-profit organization. In the AI era, high-quality corpora have become core assets, and such collaborations not only provide a more sustainable business model for Wikipedia but also serve as a key balance point to ensure AI companies obtain reliable data sources.

Key points:

  • 💰 Big players entering: Tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have paid to join the Wikipedia Enterprise program, gaining more efficient data access permissions.

  • 🛠️ Customized solutions: Wikimedia Enterprise provides structured and optimized data APIs tailored to the needs of AI training.

  • 🤝 Win-win cooperation: This move provides sustained financial support for the non-profit Wikipedia while ensuring the stability of high-quality training data for the AI industry.