Joyent developed and sponsored the JavaScript runtime Node.js after acquiring the project’s commercial stewardship. Node.js was originally created by Ryan Dahl in 2009 and became a major tool for server-side JavaScript development.
Joyent, a cloud-computing company based in San Francisco, hired Dahl and supported Node.js as the runtime gained adoption. Its event-driven, non-blocking design made it attractive for applications handling many simultaneous network connections.
Node.js was built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. This allowed developers to use JavaScript outside the browser and helped encourage a shared language across front-end and back-end web development.
A common mix-up is naming Google as the creator because Google developed V8. V8 powers Node.js, but Joyent sponsored and developed the Node.js project after its initial creation by Dahl.