I doubt this is really practical but I wonder what would happen if it just became a commercial project in a few weeks. He has given fair warning many times in the past and again today.

So out of all of those large companies, if he sets the license at say $5000-10000 per year, would they all really just pin the old version or something and leave him hanging?

Honestly this is the type of thing that makes me want to roote for the AIs in the future. They can't possibly be worse than humans.