Ask HN: How much would it cost to create a new development stack?

I'm entirely sold on the idea of VMs. The idea of multiple languages compiling to a target bytecode running on a cross-platform, high-performance VM is in my opinion one of the biggest advances in software development in the last two decades.

The CLR is technically superior, but is not really free, and not entirely cross platform.

But with Oracle starting to clamp down on Java, it occurs to me that there's no truly unencumbered VM out there.

Is now a good opportunity for someone to step in and build a third option, completely open, incorporating lessons learned from both the CLR and the JVM? Of course, it would be an absolutely monumental task - but not impossible. How many developers would it take? Maybe 50, working for 2-3 years, to get a usable first cut and basic standard libraries? Paying them an average salary of 100k, that's "only" 15 million dollars. Not to mention all the open source contributions - this is the type of project that could attract OS contributors like moths to a flame.

$15 million is a lot, but its negligible compared to the economic and cultural impact of a totally open VM superior to both the JVM and the CLR. It seems well within reach, if funded by a non-profit trust established by a large number of invested firms. Hell, there's probably a few individuals wealthy enough to pull it off, and who are philosophically inclined to support such a project.

Is there something wrong with my reasoning, here? Do you think there's any chance we might actually see a project like this take off? Would you follow/contribute to such a project?