There are plenty of upstart/renegade ibankers to fund this sort of thing.
IF there is a working prototype - it would logically receive all the funding it needed.
iBankers want to get rich, and there are plenty of them that don’t give a hoot about what Exxon thinks.
That line of thought is just nonsense.
It doesn't really matter what Exxon thinks. We are not going to see e-cat powering vehicles for a long time.
Also, Exxon would not be the one to worry about. OPEC governments with al-Qaeda terrorists on retainer would be the ones to worry about. If we come up with something that makes oil much less important, the Muslim world (plus Russia) sinks back into poverty.