How AI is taking over the global economy in one chart

For decades, corporate America has spurned big-lab research-and-development spending, the type that delivered the dizzying and broad tech and economic progress of the last century. But a belief that artificial intelligence is going to drive the next big economic wave has led today's largest companies -- like Google, IBM and Microsoft -- to revert to the old, ambitious R&D model. These five companies -- plus Amazon, Facebook and Google -- combined are investing more in research and development than many entire economies. In 2015, for instance, the entire U.K. economy -- companies and the government -- invested $53.8 billion in R&D, less than the $58.2 billion posted by the big eight. Take a look at the chart below.