The co-founder of Wikipedia is Jimmy Wales, an American internet entrepreneur. He launched the online encyclopedia in January 2001, aiming to create a freely accessible platform for knowledge sharing. Wales envisioned a collaborative environment where anyone could contribute and edit articles, making information available to a global audience. Wales, along with Larry Sanger, initially developed the project as a complement to the expert-reviewed Nupedia. Over time, Wikipedia grew rapidly, becoming one of the largest and most popular reference websites in the world, relying on volunteer contributions to maintain and expand its vast collection of articles.