The nuanced version I've heard in other tech industries (bio/agri-tech) is this: a) Europe organisations and gov't does all the deep research; b) US private companies turns it into products and reap the PR and money.

In fact, I know of a huge company that does all their research in the EU, where they can get gov't funding, but then the process to turn them into products is in the US (less regulation, larger market).