Ah, good question and critical thinking. Would the internet exist if it wasn't for central spending?

Perhaps it would but on a longer time frame. Read somewhere that those with excess can afford to spend frivolously, so governments and billionaires fit this.

Are there examples of the first mover not spending millions to get the free market to adopt the innovation? It would be great to learn from them.

I don't think you can compare a specific space program company to a nebulous term such as "the internet"? What do you mean by "the internet"? The protocols? The infrastructure? The applications running on top of it?