They don’t need to throw a stack of cash at them, Anthropic and OpenAI have programs for open source maintainers.
https://claude.com/contact-sales/claude-for-oss https://openai.com/form/codex-for-oss/
Isn't the Claude one only for a few months?
(I haven't checked the OpenAI one, as I have no interest in them)
I'd say they're less of "programs" as they are "six-month trials". What's the plan after six months?
And for what's it worth, PyPy isn't even eligible for the Claude trial because they have a meager 1700 stars on GitHub.