I can think of quite a few technologies that are the unforeseen side-effect of some government funded research, and would have probably never occurred otherwise

I can think of quite a few technologies that are the unforeseen side-effect of some government funded research, and would have probably never occurred otherwise. For example MRI, the Web, and the Internet. I would imagine quite a bit of research on green technologies and so on have also mostly been government funded until recently. Companies mostly fund research that brings immediate results. Sure, some (like IBM) may be looking further down the line, and some probably just subsidise some research as PR. But areas where there is no clear advantage and in addition carry a large risk, are mostly shunned by corporations.