Popular open-source projects:

Google: Chromium, Kubernetes, Android, TensorFlow

Meta: React, PyTorch, Llama

Microsoft: VS Code, TypeScript, .NET Core

LinkedIn: Kafka

Slotted in along these, an analogous explanation is that Alibaba needs Qwen internally (vs depending on an American company), but licensing is not part of their revenue strategy. (As a cloud vendor, they can make money on inference. The strategy is very similar to the US hyperscalers ex-Google.)

Joel Spolsky wrote in depth about this notion of commoditizing one's complement in 2002[1] using tech examples stretching back into the '80s.

1 - https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/