DARPA invented the internet.
Bolt, Beranek and Newman invented the Internet.
A private company under contract with DARPA.
From there, you need to go to the guy that constructed the TCP/IP protocol. (yes that was redundant)
He was a founder of 3com.
The technology quickly found its way to UUNET and it wasn’t until Marc Andreessen figured out how to display the information in a way that was easily consumed did the “Internet” or “World Wide Web” gain traction.
I was on the Bulletin boards in the late 1980s.
I can’t even tell you how many times I tried downloading the first iteration of Netscape before buying another new machine or parts.
DARPA undoubtedly got the ball rolling, but it was private individuals and companies that made it happen.
DARPA thought up the internet.