The development of TURBOMOLE  started in the late 1980s in the group of Prof. Dr. Reinhart Ahlrichs at the University of Karlsruhe and at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. In 2007, the TURBOMOLE GmbH was founded and is governed by its currently five stakeholders who are also core developers of different parts of the code. The company holds the right to use, distribute, and commercialize the TURBOMOLE program suite and owns a significant fraction of the source code.

TURBOMOLE GmbH has adopted an irrevocable bylaw preventing the distribution of dividends. This ensures that all profits are re-invested into the TURBOMOLE project and prevents the current and future generations of owners from enriching themselves at its expense.