Wikipedia at 25: Wikimedia Foundation Celebrates Silver Jubilee and Expands AI Data Partnerships

On January 15, 2026, Wikipedia officially marked its 25th anniversary, celebrating its evolution from a grassroots experiment into the "backbone of knowledge on the internet." As it enters its second quarter-century, the Wikimedia Foundation is positioning the encyclopedia as a critical, human-led counterbalance to the rise of synthetic, AI-generated content.

A Quarter-Century of Global Impact

Official data released by the Foundation highlights the immense scale of the project as it reaches this milestone:

• Knowledge Coverage: Over 65 million articles are now available across more than 300 languages.
• Massive Reach: The site receives nearly 15 billion page views every month from over 1.5 billion unique devices.
• Human-Powered: Nearly 250,000 volunteer editors (contributing at least once a month) remain the final authority over the platform's content.

Expansion of AI Licensing Agreements

To coincide with the anniversary, the Wikimedia Foundation announced the expansion of licensing agreements with several major AI and technology companies, including Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity, and Mistral AI.

These partnerships, facilitated through the Wikimedia Enterprise service, provide AI developers with high-speed, reliable access to verified, real-time data from Wikipedia. The Foundation’s leadership emphasized that while the project's infrastructure is "not free," these commercial agreements help sustain the non-profit's mission while ensuring that Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on high-quality, human-verified information.

"Knowledge is Human" Campaign

The Foundation has launched Wikipedia 25, a year-long global campaign under the theme "Knowledge is Human." The initiative celebrates the "humanity at its best" found within the volunteer community and includes:

• Digital Time Capsule: A project to preserve the current state of human knowledge.
• Global Docuseries: Highlights of the diverse contributors who maintain the platform worldwide.
• Symposiums on Information Integrity: Events focused on the future of open information in an AI-saturated world.

Strategy for the Next Era

As the platform marks 25 years, the Wikimedia Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to a human-centered approach to technology. While the organization is exploring AI-assisted tools to help editors identify information gaps or assist with translations, it maintains that human oversight is the non-negotiable final authority for Wikipedia’s accuracy and neutrality.