My colleague sent me this Is conda Free?.

It appears that if you just use conda and the packages from conda-forge (ie. non-commercial packages), then that will remain free:

conda, the software program for package and environment management, is free to use by anyone. > It’s open source, too. The conda-compatible packages in conda-forge, Bioconda, and almost all other publicly accessible channels are free to use by any one.

That said, this is dated Aug 29, 2023, so who knows if that still applies?