Since World War II, US-government R&D has defined the state of the art in almost every area. The private sector is in general inept.R&D at his Microsoft has certainly been inept, so he can be forgiven for saying most of them are inept as it doesn't make him look so bad. I disagree, but certainly some private sector R&D is inept or unmotivated. Unfortunately, so is much of the government's effort.
More fascinating is that the article's longer Gates quote says nothing about socialism. The MSM leapt at a chance to, in effect, put words in his mouth by interpreting a criticism of private sector R&D as an endorsement of socialism. That may have been his intent, but his cited words do not reflect that sentiment.
A much more accurate interpretation of Gates' comments is that he believes the unfettered marketplace presents no very great economic incentives to pursue green energy by technologists, producers or consumers. That observation is both true and uncontroversial.
In order to create incentives, government action incentivizing green energy or taxing non-green energy may be needed to create movement in a green direction. Such scale-tipping is hardly socialism, although it is certainly a governmental interference in the markets.
