• conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      https://www.samsung.com/global/business/networks/insights/blog/persistence-pays-off-for-samsung-networks-in-becoming-a-major-5g-radio-access-network-vendor/

      I’m not willing to dig too deep, but here’s a Samsung.com link saying it was 16 billion in 2018 and trending up. I’m not sure if building fabs goes into that bucket or a different one, and that’s a budget copycats also need, but the amount of investment in research is absolutely enough that not being able to benefit from it before being copied would make it much more difficult to do.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
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      10 months ago

      Most important research is done by universities and on public funding. Capitalist structure isn’t very good at providing incentives for fundamental research. The main reason is that companies exist to make profit, and that means pursuing research that can be commercialized in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, a lot of fundamental research doesn’t have any clear immediate application. However, this is the kind of research that results in serious technological breakthroughs as opposed to small incremental gains.