Comment by machomaster

> You don't see the USA spray grants around at the scale the EU does, do you? I'm pretty sure they don't directly subsidize startups at all.

Not true at all. The amount of support is comparable. It's just that you have to count everything, not only whatever is classified under pure "grants". R&D paid by the government (external financing). Tax credits (R&D, CHIPS, IRA, clean energy). Loan guarantees. SBIR/STTR (America's Seed Fund). Non-dilutive grants/contracts for R&D, often followed by government procurement contracts (Spacex, etc). DoD/Darpa, NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE, EDA. Earmarks. Congressional "community projects". Sector bailouts...