Invest in upstream/ downstream businesses or in capital heavy projects, You could acquire also grow inorganically. R&D in the accounting sense is very differe

Invest in upstream/ downstream businesses or in capital heavy projects, You could acquire also grow inorganically. R&D in the accounting sense is very different from research as we think. Yes there is diminishing returns for spending cash but I don't think these big companies are anywhere close to that being a real problem. In a sibling post I talked about Google's inability to spend, this is also true for old school Blue chip companies like say Oil& Gas, they have had enormous record profits last couple of years and while they have for good reasons not doing lot of new wells[1] they have not not also done much green energy investments either. [1] Financially sound not do so, given the long term prospects of oil are not great, and short term price fluctuations are not good decision basis for 30+ year projects new drilling entails.