R&D is fraught with risk, but some risks are more rewarding than others. These companies don't just sit on useless knowledge. Take Google who now sits as a "los

R&D is fraught with risk, but some risks are more rewarding than others. These companies don't just sit on useless knowledge. Take Google who now sits as a "loser" in the current AI "competition"; their projects are far from worthless. Because they've built up expertise, they're now in a very good position to overtake Microsoft on AI, even though they currently seem a bit behind. (And frankly on many fields they're already far ahead.) So OK, perhaps the behemoth that is Google is a bad example, but I still think the same thing is true for smaller companies. If you just read the news, you would think that a technological race like this only has one winner, but that just isn't true. Even quote unquote "worthless projects" can help increase the understanding and expertise in quite important areas, that while not "worth" anything currently, may still have huge value in the future. The only way to know, is to stay in the race.