On [[January 15]], [[2001]], Wales and Sanger set up [[Wikipedia]], a similar [[wiki]]-based site intended for collaboration on early encyclopedic content before submitting it to [[Nupedia]] for peer review. Wikipedia's rapid growth soon made it the dominant project and Nupedia was mothballed. Sanger did most of the early development of Wikipedia, while Wales mainly provided the necessary capital. Because Sanger was Wales's employee, Wales considers himself the sole founder of Wikipedia, though Sanger continues to call himself the "co-founder". Sanger has since dropped out of the project. His resignation can be seen at his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Larry_Sanger Wikipedia user page]. Sanger has since criticised Wales's approach to the project - [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25] - painting Wales as being "decidedly anti-elitist". Wales disagrees with Sanger's viewpoint, saying that he was not anti-elitist, but "perhaps anti-credentialist. To me the key thing is getting it right. And if a person‘s really smart and they‘re doing fantastic work I don‘t care if they‘re a high school kid or a Harvard professor, it‘s the work that matters. ... You can‘t coast on your credentials on Wikipedia... you have to enter the marketplace of ideas and engage with people."
[[Image:Jimbo Wales in France cropped.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Jimmy Wales in [[Paris]], [[France]]]]
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In 2004, Wales had been quoted as saying that he spent around US$500,000 on the establishment and operations of his Wiki projects. By the end of the foundation's February 2005 fund drive, the Wikimedia Foundation was being supported entirely by grants and donations.
Wales functions as Wikipedia's "[[benevolent dictator]]", although he disapproves of the term. Despite the creation of the Wikimedia Foundation, he retained ultimate control by appointing, in addition to himself, two business partners who are not active Wikipedia editors to the five-member board, thus effectively having a controlling three-vote majority. However, he has stated that if the two members of the board who edit Wikipedia vote the same way on something, he will cast his vote in their favor, effectively giving them the controlling majority. He has also stated that the "benevolent dictator" term is mostly used by the press and is rejected by the Wikipedia community.
