Big Tech is built on open-source handouts.<p>And open-source being built on Big Tech's research and models doesn't mean it <i>relies</i> on them. See: the many papers published by Standford and co. which rival OpenAI's research, RedPajama (<a href="https://www.together.xyz/blog/redpajama" rel="nofollow">https://www.together.xyz/blog/redpajama</a>) which rivals LLaMa. And these are built with open alternatives, there'd be more motivation without.<p>Big Tech has the advantage of compute and resources, but it's probable that open-source has the advantage of research. Since companies may have a few very talented individuals, but open-source has way more people and includes academia.