There is no conspiracy —everything Linus says is able to be scrutinized because of the financial ties and his voluntary choice of material conditions. His bosses are these people: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/leadership He chooses to work under them. No one is holding a gun to his head: only his salary and healthcare since he is in the US (he can fly to other places and get cheaper healthcare than you or I).

How many of them own AI stock and have financial incentive to not ban it from linux? Even if this is purely Linus' opinion (it very well may be), if he instead had the opinion of banning ai completely from linux, you are saying no one above him would be incentivized to change his mind? Zero? Be realistic, don't assume everyone only acts in good faith. Linus can be the only one acting in good faith here and still could be influenced via his direct financial ties. Not mutually exclusive things.

People are allowed to scrutinize Linus and his actions and his choices. Linus shouldn't be trusted just because.