CERN's budget is ~1B USD, which is 5% of NASA's, 25% of ESA's. And I won't even get started with Silicon Valley big corps.

Considering you have to pay for an electricity bill equivalent to 1/3 of Geneva and the salaries of >3000 people in one of Europe's most expensive urban areas, I wouldn't say there's a lot of money left to invest in pretty much anything.

Source: * https://press.cern/facts-and-figures/budget-overview * https://home.cern/about/engineering/powering-cern

Not really.

It might seen huge from the outside, but what each department gets is very different from those numbers.

CERN has the same issues as any research institution.

When I was there it was common to say that it felt just like being at the university without the lectures and exams part.

The CERN budget is split over multiple projects. Also, budget + donations > budget. Lastly, by opening this up for contributions more people can feel part of the push for improvements to KiCad.