When I was doing my PhD (CompSci) in the late 2000s I looked forward to join Microsoft Research because it seemed they were doing really cool stuff, even at a time when "corporate" Microsoft was the bad kid (me being very pro-Linux at the time).

One thing lead to another and I ended up going to another Research Assistant role and then getting fed up with research and going into industry.

But the idea of the Xero lab, Sun Microssystem and later Microsoft research was something I always really dreamt about. Nowadays I think startups doing autonomus vehicle technology is what looks similarly disrupting to me, but I am too much down into the SaaS rabbit hole.