At the Open Source Summit North America, the Linux Foundation launched the Agent2Agent (A2A) Project, a new open initiative aimed at creating a standardized, interoperable ecosystem for AI agents. Backed by Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow, the project will steward the A2A protocol—originally developed by Google—as an open standard for AI agent communication and coordination.
The A2A protocol allows AI agents from different vendors to securely discover each other’s capabilities, exchange information, and collaborate on complex tasks. More than 100 organizations now support the protocol, with AWS and Cisco joining as newly minted validators. The protocol and supporting SDKs and developer tools have been transferred to the Linux Foundation to ensure long-term neutrality and vendor-agnostic governance.
Founding members cited the A2A protocol as critical to unlocking scalable, cross-platform AI applications in enterprise and cloud environments. Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow confirmed plans to integrate the standard into their respective platforms. The initiative’s key priorities include advancing the A2A specification, fostering an open development community, maintaining neutral governance, and accelerating secure innovation in the AI agent landscape.
• Linux Foundation to host Agent2Agent as an open, community-driven AI protocol
• Founding members: AWS, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow
• A2A enables cross-vendor discovery, secure collaboration, and complex task execution
• Cisco to integrate A2A into AGNTCY open source agent stack; Microsoft to back enterprise-grade standards
“We are happy to be the new home of the Agent2Agent Protocol project,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. “By joining the Linux Foundation, A2A is ensuring the long-term neutrality, collaboration and governance that will unlock the next era of agent-to-agent powered productivity.”
