Arguably the most famous corporate research lab, Bell Labs, was funded by AT&T when it had an effective monopoly on phone service. When companies are in a more competitive environment, which I think is better overall for the nation's standard of living (remember when long-distance phone calls cost serious money?), they have less freedom to make investments in fundamental research that have negative expected value for their shareholders.
It's worth noting here that Bell Labs' biggest customer was the US government, because someone has to have both the means and the will to bet big on new ideas. Nowadays, nobody has the means or will... hence the decay of research-based science.
According to Wikipedia, Bell Labs was originally created with the funds received from a French government prize.
