Here in Melbourne, Australia, I believe that IBM research is trying to madly hire science / mathematics PhDs. Here's a press release from 2011 [1]:

  > Each year, IBM invests an average of US$6 billion
  > globally into research and development. The new R&D
  > laboratory is the first lab of its kind to focus on
  > research and development. It is located on campus at
  > the University of Melbourne and will employ 150
  > researchers within the next five years.

Why here? It may be the case that Australia's R&D tax incentive plays part of this [2]. Or perhaps it could be that Australia produces a decent crop of well-educated researchers, while much of the economy is based around extracting natural resources and selling them, so there isn't too much competition for employees. [3]

[1] http://www.austrade.gov.au/invest/doing-business-in-australi...

[2] https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Research-and-development-tax...

[3] i may be completely wrong about this.