[pklausler]

Fortran compilers were historically implemented by hardware vendors in order to sell their hardware, and this still largely holds true across the surviving implementations with the exceptions of GNU Fortran (obviously) and nagfor (commercial s/w product). There's a good reason that Cray Research's software group was initially part of its marketing department.

[ModernMech]

The compilers were, but Fortran wasn't invented so that hardware manufacturers could sell their wares to scientists.

[pklausler]

It was invented so that IBM could sell more gear to the institutions that employed them.