Why did the National Science Foundation stop supporting the NSFNET backbone in 1995?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) withdrew its support for the NSFNET backbone in 1995 because the infrastructure was no longer required to sustain the research community.1

By that time, the NSF determined that numerous commercial providers had emerged that were both willing and able to meet the networking needs of researchers. Furthermore, the NSF recognized that relying on these commercially supplied services would be significantly more cost-effective than continuing to fund specialized, government-operated network services.123

Following an extensive review, the NSF transitioned away from direct infrastructure management, having successfully fostered a competitive environment of commercial Internet backbones interconnected through network access points (NAPs). This shift marked a broader evolution in the history of the Internet, as control moved from government stewardship toward private-sector participation.1