I guess I could be massively overestimating how much money successful authors earn, but doesn't Neal Stephenson have quite a bit of money lying around, which could be used to bootstrap such a project if necessary?
Also 38 studios showed what happens when you let your ego fund a studio - not nice.
So while I don't doubt that he will be able to provide some funding, probably the sums needed are way too big for him to bridge.
I am a backer of the project - lets hope that if the project is doomed they will at least release the assets to the community that funded them.