[rthkljlkrj]

Not sure. The D in R&D stands for, I imagine, development of the business, whereas the one in software development stands for development of software.

[kube-system]

> 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

[cj]

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)

[eru]

Perhaps more relevant for Amazon, but not for France?

[cj]

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”)

[eru]

Granted. Though see elsewhere in the comments where people talk about how overstated the French figures are.