Tailwind CSS, widely used by AI coding tools, faced near collapse as AI bypassed its monetisation. Google, Vercel, and Lovable step in to fund the framework and preserve open-source infrastructure.
Tailwind CSS, the popular open source utility-first framework, has become the default “assembly language” for AI coding tools like Cursor and GitHub Copilot. AI agents now generate Tailwind code directly, bypassing human developers and drastically reducing traffic to documentation—the only path to its paid products.
The impact was severe. Tailwind Labs cut its engineering team by 75%, and revenue collapsed by nearly 80%, falling to $3.6 million in 2024, according to GetKatka. Despite this, Tailwind remains widely used, with 75 million downloads per month and adoption by 51% of developers globally, per the 2025 State of CSS survey.
Founder and CEO Adam Wathan highlighted the dilemma: “Traffic to our docs is down about 40% from early 2023 despite Tailwind being more popular than ever. The docs are the only way people find out about our commercial products, and without customers, we can’t afford to maintain the framework.”
AI transformed Tailwind from a product into invisible infrastructure embedded across millions of codebases. The framework’s popularity no longer translated into revenue, creating a new open-source paradox: more widely used than ever, yet at risk of collapse.
Industry intervention prevented a full collapse. Vercel, Google AI Studio, Lovable, Supabase, and Gumroad have begun sponsoring the project. Logan Kilpatrick of Google AI Studio said: “I am happy to share that we (the @GoogleAIStudio team) are now a sponsor of the @tailwindcss project! Honored to support and find ways to do more together to help the ecosystem of builders.”
Tailwind’s survival marks a shift in open source dynamics: AI-driven companies are now both beneficiaries and gatekeepers, funding essential projects that power the software ecosystem.
