Intel and Nokia are both notoriously known for their hardware... their software/os.. not so much.

So Intel and Nokia are not going to get money directly from MeeGo.. what they'll get money from is releasing hardware that is running MeeGo. Now, motorola, samsung, whatever could decide one day to give a MeeGo device a try and go grab MeeGo, make some drivers for it, and put it on a phone and Intel and Nokia won't see a dime from that.

From Intel and Nokia's perspective.. they have a hand in MeeGo so they can make some decisions regarding how it's managed (something they couldn't do if they went the Android Route).. and with making it truly open they have the possibility of dipping into thousands of experiences Linux dev's beyond their own small pool.

Somewhat like Dell selling computers with Ubuntu on it... Dell doesn't get any money from Ubuntu - and Ubuntu didn't get any money from Dell - but Dell got its money from it's hardware, and Ubuntu gets free advertising and broader user base (because it was cheaper when they (customers) bought it than the windows counterpart). The only difference in this case, would be that Nokia and Intel have direct say in MeeGo, Dell doesn't have the same for Ubuntu.