It seems a dollar of government investment now is likely worth $5 of investment down the line, once we've fallen further behind. The US ought to be investing on multiple fronts to regain/maintain the lead here.

Best company I worked at -- small startup -- would always do 2-3 R&D initiatives in parallel. One would be conservative (guaranteed results). One would be super-high-risk (huge payoff if it works). Sometimes there would be one or two more. It was all a big hedge. Some panned out, some didn't, and when we hit the market, our technology was like science fiction. Competition didn't know what hit them.

That would run a fair bit of coin, but fairly little on the national scale.

(Footnote: Not a software company)