1. For mature tech companies selling high margin products, R&D is typically 8-16% of revenue while operating profit margins are 20-40% of revenue. Even after taxes and interest, it’s natural for buybacks to exceed R&D

2. Not all R&D spent is booked as accounting GAAP R&D. Any internal tool for example can not be booked as R&D because it’s not sold to end customers.

3. Companies outside of tech do not report their amount of R&D spend but include it with SG&A. If deemed immaterial then you don’t see it