Xerox and AT&T were true outliers. And I would name IBM before Microsoft. Still, as far as I know, neither MS nor IBM funds truly basic research without consid

Xerox and AT&T were true outliers. And I would name IBM before Microsoft. Still, as far as I know, neither MS nor IBM funds truly basic research without considering some kind of potential return. On the other hand, the NSF doesn't consider ROI at all because it's funded by us taxpayers.