# Gentoo is looking for infrastructure sponsors after losing several long-time supporters - **Published on:** 2026-10-09 - **Category:** News - **Original page:** https://linuxgratis.com/en/articles/gentoo-seeks-infrastructure-sponsors Gentoo Linux has asked companies and organisations to help replace several sponsors that stopped providing infrastructure this year. It is looking for rack space, server hosting and hardware donations. It doesn't say who left or how much is missing, and no service is down. Here is what it is asking for, how to help, and what it has, or hasn't, to do with DigitalOcean ending its credits. --- **Gentoo Linux needs new infrastructure sponsors.** On 7 October 2026 the project posted a short notice on its website: this year, **several sponsors who had supported it for a long time were unable to continue their previous commitments**, and the distribution is looking for replacements. It doesn't say which organisations left, which servers or services are affected, or how much the lost support was worth. It's worth being clear from the start about what the notice does **not** say: it doesn't mention shutting anything down, nor that the repositories or mirrors will stop working. It's a request for help to keep what exists running, not a closure warning. ## What Gentoo is asking for The notice points to the [Infrastructure project's sponsorship page](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Infrastructure/Sponsorship) on the wiki, which describes the usual arrangements. Broadly, there are three ways to help: - **Rack space** in a data centre, where Gentoo can install its own machines. - **Servers hosted** by the sponsor, physical or on its platform. - **Donated server hardware.** The team prefers **organisations whose goals align with Gentoo's**, and the contact is direct: [infra@gentoo.org](mailto:infra@gentoo.org). The notice ends with a very Gentoo line: "help us continue to provide the best source-based Linux distribution ever!" That preference makes sense. For a community distribution, a sponsorship isn't only about getting machines: stable access, an agreement that lasts and keeping technical control of its own infrastructure all matter too. ## Why infrastructure weighs so much at Gentoo Every distribution needs servers to host repositories, distribute packages and serve developers and users: the website, the wiki, Bugzilla, the forums, the Portage tree that is synced every day. Gentoo adds something more. With **Portage**, almost everything is built from source with each machine's options, and although it has also offered binary packages for amd64 and arm64 since 2023, those binaries have to be built somewhere. The same goes for the *stage3* images, testing on the many architectures it supports (from amd64 and arm64 to hppa, m68k, s390 or loong) and day-to-day maintenance. If you want to know where that model comes from, we cover it in the [history of Gentoo](/en/articles/history-of-gentoo). There's also a difference between **donating a server** and **committing to keep it running for years**. A physical machine needs power, connectivity, cooling, someone to swap a disk and, sooner or later, replacing. That's why a project like this is more interested in a reliable long-term arrangement than in the value of the kit handed over on day one. ## Is this related to DigitalOcean? Gentoo's notice comes a few days after news that **DigitalOcean is ending credits for open source projects**. [It's FOSS reported it on 4 October](https://itsfoss.com/news/digitalocean-open-source-credits-end/) based on a GitHub issue from the **Node.js** infrastructure team, which received an email saying the company was no longer accepting new applications or renewals for its Open Source Credits programme. According to that same article, DigitalOcean hadn't announced it on its blog or social media. The timing invites putting two and two together, but **nothing links the two cases**. Gentoo hasn't said who the departing sponsors are or why they left, and it doesn't mention DigitalOcean. Nor does it mention artificial intelligence, GPU prices or a lack of data centre capacity. You could argue that pressure on cloud infrastructure is pushing some companies to review these programmes, but with what is known today that's a hypothesis, not an explanation. What it does show is something that isn't new: much of the free software used by companies and public bodies is sustained by a mix of donations, corporate contributions, volunteer work and free or subsidised infrastructure. When a sponsor changes priorities, the project has to find alternatives or pay the bill some other way. Spreading support across several contributors (one provides servers, another the space, another the network or credits) reduces dependence on a single company, although it doesn't remove the costs and it takes coordination. ## What you can do If you work at a company with its own data centre, spare rack space or server hardware about to be retired, the [Infrastructure wiki](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Infrastructure/Sponsorship) explains which arrangements Gentoo usually accepts, and [infra@gentoo.org](mailto:infra@gentoo.org) is the address to talk it through. If you'd rather contribute personally, the route is the Gentoo Foundation's [donations page](https://www.gentoo.org/donate/), and the [sponsors page](https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/sponsors/) shows who supports the project today. For Gentoo users, nothing changes for now: the mirrors and Portage syncing keep working, and service status can be checked at [infra-status.gentoo.org](https://infra-status.gentoo.org/). It remains to be seen which agreements the project secures and whether they fill the gaps. Until there's more information, the sensible reading is the literal one: a distribution that needs to replace resources, not proof of a general crisis in open source. The [Gentoo page](/en/gentoo) carries on as usual. **Sources:** ["Gentoo infrastructure sponsors wanted!"](https://www.gentoo.org/news/2026/10/07/infrastructure-sponsors-wanted.html), official Gentoo announcement (7 October 2026); [Project:Infrastructure/Sponsorship](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Infrastructure/Sponsorship), Gentoo wiki; ["Gentoo Linux Seeks New Infrastructure Sponsors After Long-Time Supporters Withdraw"](https://systemadministration.net/gentoo-linux-seeks-new-infrastructure-sponsors-after-long-time-supporters-withdraw/), SystemAdministration.net (9 October 2026); ["DigitalOcean Quietly Ends Open Source Credits Program"](https://itsfoss.com/news/digitalocean-open-source-credits-end/), It's FOSS (4 October 2026).