That's actually how most successful scams work; the scammer aligns themselves with legitimate parties and yes, sponsors them financially in a lot of cases.
Then all it takes in a good word or two from even one of them, and others start repeating the narrative, and a certain idea builds up as to what they are.
I know better, because I've been around for longer.
I see the false virtue and the false promises. FUTO doesn't care about "Big Tech"; they too want to be Big Tech.