Igniting Innovation: Evidence from PyTorch on Technology Control in Open Collaboration

Many companies offer free access to their technology to encourage outside addon innovation, hoping to later profit by raising prices or harnessing the power of the crowd while continuing to steer the direction of innovation. They can achieve this balance by opening access to the technology (access rights) but still maintaining governing control over it (control rights). However, how this continued exertion of control influences other companies’ choice to invest in furthering that technology is not well understood. This study looks at the impact of technology control on external contributions in open collaboration contexts by examining the case of PyTorch, a popular machine learning framework, which shifted its governance from a for-profit corporation (Meta) to a non-profit foundation in 2022. The results show that this shift led to a significant decrease in contributions from Meta but a notable increase from external companies. In particular, participation increased from complementors (Chip Manufacturers); by contrast, users (App Developers and Cloud Providers who rely on PyTorch as input) did not change their rate of participation. These findings are consistent with the notion that the governance change resolved complementors’ hold-up concerns.