Blender uses a special fund to develop and support its tools. Now Apple is among the main sponsors. The company’s funds will be used to develop the key components of Blender and add new functions to it.The fact that Apple will transfer funds to the Blender Development Fund on a monthly basis was announced by the developers of the toolkit on October 14.
“In addition to contributing to the foundation, Apple will present its engineering expertise and additional resources to Blender headquarters to help artists and developers who use Blender,” the official statement said.
What amount Apple will transfer to the Blender Development Fund is not specified. The minimum annual payment for corporate sponsors is $6 thousand, and the special Corporate Patron level starts from $120 thousand. They can also influence the roadmap and strategic decisions on the development of tools.
The Blender Foundation is currently supported by 2,658 people and 28 different companies that transfer $166 thousand to it every month. Among the most notable sponsors are NVIDIA, Epic Games, AMD, Unity, Adobe, Microsoft and Amazon.