Google has announced a $1M donation to the Rust Foundation to improve the interoperability between the Rust and C++ programming languages. This financial boost supports the launch of the Interop Initiative, a project dedicated to smoothly integrating Rust into C++ dominated environments.

Google uses programming language Rust in Android for Bluetooth and Keystore 2.0 modules. In ChromeOS for the cross vm virtual machine monitor and drivers to run other operating systems in a secure, isolated environment. 

The company also actively contributes to open-source projects that use Rust, including Mercurial, a source code management tool, demonstrating its support for the Rust programming community. It also employs Rust to develop firmware for FIDO (Fast Identity Online) security keys, which are physical devices used for secure authentication, enhancing the security of the authentication process.

Its large-scale use of Rust prompted it to join the foundation in 2021. “Based on historical vulnerability density statistics, Rust has proactively prevented hundreds of vulnerabilities from impacting the Android ecosystem,” said Dave Kleidermacher, Google Vice President of Engineering, Android Security & Privacy. 

This funding comes to help companies transition from C++ to Rust. This will mean rewriting millions of lines of C++ code. “It would be unrealistic to expect even the most technically advanced organisation to easily pivot to Rust and away from the architecture of existing codebases,” said Rust Foundation Executive Director & CEO, Dr. Rebecca Rumbul. 

The initiative’s first steps involve drafting a detailed proposal to outline the scope of work, involving discussions with the Rust Project Leadership Council, stakeholders, and member organisations. The focus will be on expanding existing interoperability efforts, possibly integrating build systems, and exploring the use of AI for code conversion from C++ to Rust.

Three months ago, David Weston, Vice President, Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft announced a funding of $10 million to the Rust foundation in a tweet. This, however has not been officially confirmed by Microsoft