Wikipedia Monetizes Data: Deals with Microsoft and Meta

On January 15, 2026, the Wikimedia Foundation confirmed commercial agreements with Microsoft and Meta. The tech giants gain official high-speed access to Wikipedia content to train their AI models. Previously, companies used the encyclopedia's data for free, often via mass web scraping.

The deal sets an important precedent: community-created data is recognized as a valuable asset requiring payment. For Wikimedia, this is a new funding source, and for AI developers, it guarantees legal cleanliness (clean data provenance) and information accuracy. Experts note this is a step toward a civilized data market where "Fair Use" is no longer a universal excuse.

Source: Reuters