The funding model of Bell Labs ultimately failed due to the surrounding ecosystem and the breakup of monopolies, which made it difficult to maintain large-scale research organizations.

Bell Labs had a budget of $500 million in 1974, which would be equivalent to $1.5 billion today, highlighting the scale of investment needed for foundational research.

At DeepMind, we aimed to create a modern-day Bell Labs, demonstrating that cutting-edge research can thrive in a startup environment, blending ambitious thinking with top engineering. There should be a more fluid two-way system between academia and startups, especially when ideas are mature enough to be spun out easily.

Characteristics of a monopoly include proprietary technology, network effects, and economies of scale, which can lead to sustained market dominance over time.

The long-term value of companies will ultimately depend on their ability to solve real customer problems and generate sustainable revenue, as seen with major tech firms like Google and Meta.

I am proud of Google's ability to push the technology frontier and create businesses that drive innovation and prosperity.

Having a monopoly means that as your company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for competitors to defeat you, often due to network effects.

There are many areas of innovation that have seen tremendous advancements, yet no one has made significant profits from them.

Innovations like self-driving cars require substantial long-term investment, often in the range of tens of billions of dollars over decades.