[conception]

Private companies don’t do basic research.

[j7ake]

Check Physics and Chemistry Nobel prize of last 5 years, Google was involved in half of them.

[xhkkffbf]

IBM researchers won a few Nobel prizes themselves.

[dcrazy]

Have things changed since Bell Labs produced the transistor?

[inejge]

Yes. Bell Labs are a shadow of their former glory, when Bell could lavishly fund it, having a quasi-socialist telecommunications monopoly. Private companies don't like to fund research outside of their own domain -- that has been offloaded to federal funding, but (as seen here) it's getting a lot more strings attached.

[jjtheblunt]

they definitely do for electronics, for example. i've worked in such (Qualcomm, Motorola, Apple) in inner sanctum engineering roles.