Conversely, for the really novel stuff government investment in research has a pretty good track record, really - I mean, they don't always turn it into a product, but who cares? Hoping for a corporation to fund medium or long-horizon research seems unwise. Even if they do, they're not going to do it in a way that's very efficient (i.e. they'll inefficiently invest in stuff with a high moat, rather than broad applicability).