I don't think it likely that Vassar strictly prefers medicine to the singularity. Much more likely he can do almost all of the work he does for SingInst when he's with the other company, the work he can't do can be done by someone else just as well (or better, or that work isn't so important), and the extra benefits he can bring outweigh the negatives of reducing committed time.

If he does genuinely think medicine is more important, that's a failing of Michael Vassar, not of SingInst.

(And a success on the part of SingInst in letting him do that, instead of demanding committment).

So, I disagree with your connotations.

The company could generate profit to help fund SingInst and give evidence that the rationality techniques that Vassar, etc. use work in a context with real world feedback. This in turn could give evidence of them being useful in the context of x-risk reduction where empirical feedback is not available.

(I believe it's the org that announced the prize recently discussed on LW.)

It actually looks like 4 SingInst folk are involved. Networking.