Comment by criddell

One of the greatest examples is the DARPA VLSI project of the late 70's and 80's. The ROI of that program is crazy.

If you are interested in this time, I 100% recommend the book The Dream Machine which is centered on J.C.R. Licklider but covers most of the people and projects that lead to personal computers. Stripe Press has a beautiful hardcover version of the book, but the font is tiny. I had to switch to an ereader version in order to read it.