I use to believe that the business model of Microsoft was just selling an overpriced Operating System and Microsoft Office to governments and businesses. I used to believe that the business model of Google was gathering data and selling accurate ads.
I was recently surprised to discover they have research subsidiaries called Microsoft Research and Google Deepmind
Microsoft Research employs more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_DeepMind
The founder of Deep Mind received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis
Do they do actual research here or is this junk science?
Large corporations, especially those related to tech, will generally have a research arm of some form performing university level research. Outside of attempting to use the research to argue that their companies aren’t a harm to society, the research is generally legit.
The corporations generally do it to stay competitive. In the near term, research can be used to create patentable technology and new products. In the long term, the research can give an idea on what can be technically achievable in the future, allowing companies to increase their predictive capabilities.