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> More generally, no private company would be able to fund fundamental research and turn a profit. I have to imagine you mean turn a profit directly on the res
by adventured 2y ago
> More generally, no private company would be able to fund fundamental research and turn a profit.
I have to imagine you mean turn a profit directly on the research itself (isolated down to the cost per specific item of research).
Because obviously big tech can quite trivially fund fundamental research at an enormous scale as they see fit while printing their traditional gigantic profits.
Apple + Microsoft + Facebook + Amazon + Nvidia + Google = over half a trillion dollars in annual operating income (around $126 billion in op income last quarter).
They could fund NASA (~$25 billion) and would never really notice it. It'd take about four to six months of further op income growth by those six companies and NASA's budget would be covered in perpetuity.
- dotnet00 2y agoPlus, big tech do fund fundamental research, a bunch of them are working on quantum computing for instance. None of that is likely to turn a profit any time soon and the research is expensive. But they do it anyway.
- z3phyr 2y agoQuantum Computing, Protein folding, Fusion etc are usually PR topics. If the intention is to advance these, then small amount of funding is useless. We need dedicated Manhattan project style endeavors, a population dedicated to the cause.
- z3phyr 2y agoAdvances in science requires enormous resources. Take space travel. These companies will never try to innovate in deep space travel, because it brings nothing to them. Low Earth Orbit is where the profit is (but less science) They could fund current NASA, but they won't fund what NASA should be.
- thrance 2y agoThey could, but they won't. The private sector is allergic to such long-term investments with no clear path to profitability. And why would they fund research if their competitors could just as easily monetize its potential results ? They rely on publicly funded labs to make the real innovations and do the last (but nonetheless important) mile of bringing it to the public.