The Wolfram Institute emerged from Stephen Wolfram's long-held conviction that computation offers a fundamental new paradigm for understanding and exploring the universe. Its culture centers on computationally informed exploration across diverse disciplines, from physics and mathematics to biology and social sciences. This is fostered through a highly collaborative environment, encouraging researchers with vastly different backgrounds to converge on problems through computational experimentation and model building. A key aspect is the focus on utilizing Wolfram Language as a common "lingua franca," allowing for rapid prototyping, data analysis, and knowledge sharing, thereby accelerating the pace of discovery.

Unlike traditional academic models, the Wolfram Institute actively promotes "open research," where insights and preliminary results are shared internally and, increasingly, externally. This accelerates the refinement of ideas through collective feedback and cross-pollination. Located near but independent from academic institutions, the Institute attracts individuals driven by a passion for computational discovery, rather than traditional academic validation. Its existence is fueled by Wolfram's personal investment and a vision of computation as a universal tool for scientific advancement, sidestepping conventional funding structures and disciplinary silos that often hinder truly novel interdisciplinary work.