Matt Mullenweg on the future of open source and why he’s taking a stand

Matt Mullenweg defends blocking WP Engine and calls Meta’s Llama ‘fake open source’ while revealing Automattic’s $500M ARR and Tumblr’s half-billion-site WordPress migration.

• WordPress powers 43% of all websites, 10x the number-two platform (Shopify at ~4%).
• Meta’s Llama requires a license from Meta above 750M monthly active users, disqualifying it as true open source.
• Automattic generates roughly $500M ARR; WooCommerce, a $3M acquisition, now represents the majority of that revenue.
• Tumblr was acquired for $3M (down from Yahoo’s $1.1B purchase) and is mid-migration of 500M sites onto WordPress infrastructure.
• Mullenweg forked WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields plugin into Secure Custom Fields after blocking WP engine from wordpress.org; a court later ordered the original action reversed.
• Sentiment analysis found 52% negative Twitter sentiment vs. only 8% on LinkedIn/Instagram/Facebook — Mullenweg attributes the gap to Twitter’s algorithm promoting outrage.
• Mullenweg mortgaged his condo to donate the final $1–1.5M needed to complete the Bay Lights installation on the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

2025-03-02 · Watch on YouTube