Everyone asks the same thing once they jump ship from X. It's a natural reflex. You spend years under the thumb of a billionaire's whims, and suddenly, you're in a place that looks like the "old Twitter," but feels... different. So, who owns bluesky social media platform? Is there another guy in a black t-shirt waiting to flip the script?
Honestly, the answer is a lot more boring than a hostile takeover—and that’s exactly why people are sticking around.
It’s Not Jack Dorsey’s Toy Anymore
Let’s clear this up first. Jack Dorsey, the guy who started Twitter, was the one who kicked this whole thing off back in 2019. He basically gave a small team a pile of Twitter’s money and told them to build a "decentralized" social media protocol.
But here’s the kicker: Dorsey is gone.
He left the board in May 2024. He even deleted his account. He apparently thought the platform was becoming too much like a traditional social network and not enough like a pure, "freedom-at-all-costs" protocol. Now, he's off doing his own thing with Nostr. So, if you’re worried about Dorsey pulling the strings from a meditation retreat, you can breathe easy. He has zero ownership and zero say.
So, Who Actually Signs the Checks?
The technical owner of bluesky social media platform is a company called Bluesky Social, PBC.
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That "PBC" is the most important part of the name. It stands for Public Benefit Corporation. In the corporate world, this is a big deal. Most companies are legally required to do whatever makes the most money for their shareholders. If they don't, they can get sued. A PBC is different. Its charter says it has to balance making money with a specific mission—in this case, building an open and decentralized social web.
Jay Graber is the CEO and the person with the most control. She’s an engineer who was hand-picked by the original team to lead the spin-off.
Unlike a lot of tech CEOs, she doesn't actually own the whole thing. The ownership is split between:
- Jay Graber (the largest individual shareholder)
- The Bluesky Employees (they all have equity)
- Venture Capital Firms (the people who provided the "fuel" money)
The Money Trail: Who Are the Investors?
You can't run a massive social network on good vibes alone. You need servers. You need developers. You need lawyers.
Bluesky started with a $13 million grant from Twitter before Elon Musk took over. Musk, unsurprisingly, cut that cord immediately. Since then, the company has had to raise its own cash. They've pulled in over $120 million across a few rounds.
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The big names on the cap table include Blockchain Capital, who led a $15 million round in 2024, and more recently, a massive $97 million Series B in early 2025. Other backers include Neo, Alumni Ventures, and individuals like Joe Beda (one of the creators of Kubernetes) and Bob Young (the Red Hat guy).
The Board of Directors: The Real Power
If you want to know who really steers the ship, look at the board. It's not a bunch of suits from Wall Street.
- Jay Graber: The CEO.
- Jeremie Miller: The guy who invented XMPP (basically the tech that made early instant messaging possible). He's a legend in the "open internet" world.
- Mike Masnick: The founder of Techdirt and the guy who wrote the paper "Protocols, Not Platforms," which literally inspired the creation of Bluesky.
- Kinjal Shah: A partner at Blockchain Capital.
This group is weighted heavily toward people who care about how the internet is built, not just how to squeeze it for ad revenue.
Why Ownership Matters Less Here Than on X or Meta
Here is the part most people miss. Bluesky is built on something called the AT Protocol.
Think of it like email. No one "owns" email. You can use Gmail, or Outlook, or some weird private server, and you can still talk to everyone else. Bluesky is the "Gmail" of the AT Protocol. They own the app, the servers, and the brand.
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But if Jay Graber decided to sell the company to a Bond villain tomorrow, you could technically take your username, your followers, and your posts and move them to a different app built on the same protocol. You aren't "locked in" the way you are on Instagram or X.
The Bottom Line on Ownership
The bluesky social media platform is an independent, private company. It is controlled by its CEO and its board, and it is funded by venture capitalists who are betting that a "decentralized" internet is the next big thing.
It is not a subsidiary of X, it has no ties to Meta, and Jack Dorsey has left the building.
If you’re looking to verify this yourself or dive deeper into how they spend their money, your best bet is to check their official "About" page or follow the transparency reports they've started issuing. Since they're a PBC, they have to be a bit more open about their "public benefit" progress than your average tech startup.
To keep tabs on who’s really in charge, keep an eye on who joins that Board of Directors next—that’s where the real power lives. You can also monitor their SEC filings if they ever decide to go public, though as of 2026, they seem perfectly happy staying private and keeping the "big tech" giants at arm's length.