There’s very little downside. Spend some money from wealthy people and institutions, get some engineers paid, get some code written. The only losers are the investors who, per their job description, take the risk. Perhaps simplified but I like companies spending money on this stuff.

Risk is part of investment of course, but isn't the assumption the money will be spent in ways that focuses on return? (I know the answer being a developer, but taking the broader perspective)

So they shouldn't have open sourced?

I think the point is that they shouldn't have written the code in the first place. Although if it is innovation theater, then yeah, maybe they shouldn't release it, either. A real open-source project is a long-term commitment to a community, not a PR checklist item.