Comment by imglorp
11 days ago
It's also fundamental tech and a research pipeline supporting new ones.
There are numerous examples of whole competencies were transferred to a foreign partner, leaving only sales and marketing in the US. TV's for example, gone by 2000, leaving only a swirl of patent walls to further prevent them from coming back. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2014/10/22/america...
And research? DEC WRL, Bell Labs, Xerox Parc ... Which corp has the gumption to fund any of that again? They'd rather pad the current quarter than invest in the next.
Corporate research spending is nearly $1T/yr. Yes, corporations have a lower risk tolerance than the government, but that's not always a bad thing.
Not just risk tolerance - they also have different (generally much more short-sighted) incentives.
I kind of wonder how much of that money being reported is really research vs gamed numbers? eg for taxation claim purposes and things along those lines.
Especially interested in data from Alphabet (e.g., from ongoing legal battles?)
(I'd assume Amazon & Microsoft are too clever, too well-run for their own good/our eptification)