The Foundation is an organization created by Hari Seldon to fulfill his plan to save the galaxy from 30,000 years of barbarism after the fall of the Galactic Empire. The Foundation is established on the distant planet Terminus; in its first 300 years, it collects nearby planets into a fledgling empire. It does so at first by presenting high technology as miracles of a new religion; later, it sends out Traders who sell this technology alongside membership in the Foundation’s new empire.

The success of the Foundation is based on Seldon’s psychohistorical predictions that such an institution would become an unstoppable force for reuniting planets and stitching them into a new Empire. This theory founders on an unexpected development: a mutant who can control the emotions of millions of people at a time and thereby conquer their planets.

The Foundation has a sibling organization, the Second Foundation, whose whereabouts are a mystery. The race to discover its location becomes the focus of the plot late in the story. Both Foundations are the most important organizations in the galaxy; they are the jewels in the crown of any who can conquer them.