This is Why America Wins
A PwC study has looked at the 1,000 public companies around the world that spend the most on R&D, and found a hefty 11.4% jump from 2017, to a record-high $782 billion. The increase was nearly triple the rise from 2016 to 2017, Fortune reports via newsletter. The top ten R&D spenders were:
1. Amazon
2. Alphabet
3. Volkswagen
4. Samsung
5. Intel
6. Microsoft
7. Apple
8. Roche
9. Johnson & Johnson
10. Merck
Companies headquartered in North America were the biggest spenders by far—accounting for nearly half of the total—but Chinese companies saw the fastest growth, up 34% from the previous year, compared to an 8% increase at North American companies. The authors said that when they started this list in 2005, only eight Chinese companies registered, with a negligible amount of spending. But this year, 145 Chinese companies were among the top 1,000 spenders.