News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies and government of France. Parent comment

Re:Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies an... by kube-system on Monday January 15, 2024 @06:14PM (#39007342)
> Research and development is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existing ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_and_development

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies an... by cj on Monday January 15, 2024 @06:43PM (#39007588)
IRS definition is probably more relevant:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-regs/research_credit_basic_sec41...

(Not 100% sure this is the most up to date definition but it gives you an idea)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies an... by eru on Monday January 15, 2024 @09:46PM (#39008818)
Perhaps more relevant for Amazon, but not for France?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies an... by cj on Monday January 15, 2024 @11:01PM (#39009327)
I’m responding to how Amazon categorizes their R&D expenditures (which is based on IRS’s definition, not the Wikipedia definition).

If we don’t understand how Amazon categorizes R&D, we can’t make a fair comparison to France.

If anything, IRS’s (very) broad definition of R&D helps France in that Amazon’s R&D spend isn’t truly R&D in the colloquial sense (or the Wikipedia definition)

In other words, Amazon’s R&D spend is likely overstated (based on what an average person would consider “R&D”)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Amazon R&D spending is more than that of all companies an... by eru on Monday January 15, 2024 @11:12PM (#39009402)
Granted. Though see elsewhere in the comments where people talk about how overstated the French figures are.
[ Parent | on HN ]