I think releasing models for free is some 4d chess move by the chinese. Big chunk of the us stock market is fueled by ai mania, if the frontier labs turn out to be drastically less valuable than first believed, the downturm may be very bad. Think of all the big tech companies that have a ton of debt that they took to pour money into AI. It seems like a similar tactic to what Chinese car manufacturers are doing in Europe but the result may be more dramatic.