[mempko]

Uh, the federal government is always at the top of the food chain in all R&D tech. They pioneered VR before Meta. They continue to fund VR. Zuckerberg is just acting like a government research investor. Which is, spend money on an idea that doesn't seem like it will immediately bear fruit.

This is how literally ALL the technology you use was developed. Huge, multi-decade spending on R&D until it works. Literally any technology you can think of.

[skippyboxedhero]

Two mistakes: one, survivorship bias, lots of people spent money on tech that didn't work. And two, the problem isn't that he is spending money, it is that he is spending money on something that continues to show no revenue. The point of spending money is not the technology, it is to get a return of more money later.

I can't think of any technology that required multi-decade spending on this scale before revenue, fusion? If something needs multi-decade spending, it is either a scam or uninvestable.

[mempko]

VR had 50 years of R&D before they hit markets. Computers had 50 years of R&D before they hit markets. What exactly are you talking about? You are discounting the largest buyer in the economy, the federal government. By the way, the federal government spends more on R&D than all VC combined.