Private company

Wolfram Research

Logo: Wolfram Research, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American multinational company

Wolfram Research, Inc. ( WUUL-frəm) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include WolframAlpha, Wolfram System Modeler, Wolfram Workbench, gridMathematica, Wolfram Finance Platform, webMathematica, the Wolfram Cloud, and the Wolfram Programming Lab.2 It was founded by Stephen Wolfram and Theodore Gray.1 It employed 400 people.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1987Founded1

Wolfram Research, Inc. ( WUUL-frəm) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include WolframAlpha, Wolfram System Modeler, Wolfram Workbench, gridMathematica, Wolfram Finance Platform, webMathematica, the Wolfram Cloud, and the Wolfram Programming Lab. Wolfram Research founder Stephen Wolfram is the CEO. The company is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, United States.2

Corporate structure

Wolfram Research sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Wolfram Research Champaign
    • Wolfram Research (United Kingdom) Subsidiary · United Kingdom

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Founded by Stephen Wolfram and Theodore Gray in 1987.1

The company launched Wolfram Alpha, an answer engine on May 16, 2009. It brings a new approach to knowledge generation and acquisition that involves large amounts of curated computable data in addition to semantic indexing of text.

Wolfram Research acquired MathCore Engineering AB on March 30, 2011.

On July 21, 2011, Wolfram Research launched the Computable Document Format (CDF). CDF is an electronic document format designed to allow easy authoring of dynamically generated interactive content.

In June 2014, Wolfram Research officially introduced the Wolfram Language as a new general multi-paradigm programming language. It is the primary programming language used in Mathematica.

On April 15, 2020, Wolfram Research received $5,575,000 to help pay its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the U.S. government's Paycheck Protection Program administered by the Small Business Administration. The loan was forgiven.

From Wikipedia’s article on Wolfram Research, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Wolfram Research, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Products and brands

  • software

Listed on Wikidata.1

Mathematica

Mathematica began as a software program for doing mathematics by computer, and has evolved to cover all domains of technical computing software, with features for neural networks, machine learning, image processing, geometry, data science, and visualizations. Central to Mathematica's mission is its ability to perform symbolic computation, for example, the ability to solve indefinite integrals symbolically. Mathematica includes a notebook interface and can produce slides for presentations. Mathematica is available in a desktop version, a grid computing version, and a cloud version.

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a free online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from externally sourced curated data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might. Users submit queries and computation requests via a text field and Wolfram Alpha then computes answers and relevant visualizations. In 2012, a paid "Pro" level with additional features was released.

In 2016, Wolfram Alpha Enterprise, a business-focused analytics tool, was launched. The program combines data supplied by a corporation with the algorithms from Wolfram Alpha to answer questions related to that corporation.

Wolfram System Modeler

Wolfram System Modeler is a platform for engineering as well as life-science modeling and simulation based on the Modelica language. It provides an interactive graphical modeling and simulation environment and a customizable set of component libraries. The primary interface, ModelCenter, is an interactive graphical environment including a customizable set of component libraries. The software also provides a tight integration with Mathematica. Users can develop, simulate, document, and analyze their models within Mathematica notebooks.

From Wikipedia’s article on Wolfram Research, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

  • Wolfram Research (United Kingdom)

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1987Founded Founded1

Funding

Where the company's money came from, by calendar year: private offerings filed with the SEC, federal grants, loans, contracts and other assistance from USAspending.gov, and PPP loans from the SBA. Each bar links to the records below.

Money received by year$5.6M 2020–2020
Money received by yearMoney received by year, 2020–2020: $5.6M in all. PPP loans $5.6M.$0$2M$4M$6M2020 · PPP loans: $5.6M2020
Figures by year
YearPPP loansTotal
2020$5.6M$5.6M

PPP loans

Paycheck Protection Program loans of $150,000 and up, approved April 2020 to July 2021, from the SBA5. Matched to this company by name and state.

  1. Apr 15, 2020$5.6M PPP loan (first draw) from JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association5To WOLFRAM RESEARCH, INC., Champaign IL; $5.6M forgiven Aug 16, 2021