Of all the major corporations absent from the Blender Development Fund, Apple was always the most glaring omission. As of today that has changed as Blender have announced that Apple have joined the fund as a Patron level sponsor.
There are minimal details on the Blender news page:
The Blender Foundation, the organization behind the popular open source 3D creation tool “Blender”, today announced that Apple has joined the Blender Development Fund as a Patron Member to support continued core development for Blender.
Alongside a contribution to the Development Fund, Apple will provide engineering expertise and additional resources to the Blender HQ and development community to help support Blender artists and developers.
We discuss the possible ramifications of Apple joining the development efforts of Blender in the video below. You can learn more about the fund that helps support Blender at https://fund.blender.org/.
If you are concerned about Blender “being bought” or a negative affect of these corporate influences, be sure to check this video out to hopefully allay some of your fears.