The Billion Dollar Open Source Giant

Red Hat is a massive software powerhouse that proved you could build a multi-billion dollar business by giving away your core products for free. They transformed the corporate world by packaging free, community-driven code into stable, enterprise-grade tools.

Instead of selling software licenses, Red Hat earns its money through high-end support subscriptions and specialized services. Their bold strategy changed how major corporations view software, making open source a standard for banks and governments. Today, they operate as a massive engine of innovation while remaining under the wing of IBM. Their success remains one of the most brilliant business pivots in tech history.