Exclusive: Google-backed agentic A2A protocol gets a new home
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A), a Google-created standard for AI agents to talk to one another, is moving to the Agentic AI Foundation, backers of the emerging standard told Axios.
Why it matters: Open standards could make it easier to mix AI agents and tools from different providers without building custom connections between each one.
The big picture: Different companies build AI agents using different models, platforms and tools. Common protocols aim to spare businesses from having to custom-build the connections among them.
- Putting A2A alongside MCP and related projects could help push the industry toward more modular, model-agnostic AI systems — giving companies more flexibility to choose providers based on cost, performance, latency or other needs.
State of play: The move puts A2A in the same home as Model Context Protocol (MCP), which handles connections between AI applications and tools and data while A2A handles communication between independent agents.
Driving the news: A2A will become a hosted project of the Agentic AI Foundation, moving from the Linux Foundation's broader portfolio into its foundation focused specifically on agentic AI.
- From its launch in December 2025, AAIF says it has grown from fewer than 40 members to more than 250, with key backers including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, Bloomberg, as well as Shopify and Block.
What they're saying: "When we first envisioned A2A, the hypothesis was customers are deploying agentic systems from multiple technology providers and platform providers," Google Cloud VP Rao Surapaneni told Axios.
- All of these agents need to be able to work together, he said.
- AAIF executive director Mazin Gilbert said the move helps give a neutral home to develop an open way for AI agents to communicate with one another.
- "There's a big difference between an open protocol and open standard, and having an open protocol becoming interoperable with the entire stack," he said in an interview. "Companies don't want just one protocol; they want the whole stack to be open."
