The one thousand companies that spent the most on R&D in fiscal 2014 (ending June 30) increased spending by 1.4% to $647 billion. Revenues rose 3.7% to $18.4 trillion. Spending as a percentage of revenue dropped to 3.5%. The top 100 companies’ expenditures made up only 1% of the annual increase in spending, compared with 45% last year. Nonetheless, they accounted for most R&D spending, with the top 20 companies responsible for over 25% of the total. Computing and electronics, health care, auto, industrials, and software and Internet firms accounted for 26%, 21%, 16%, 11% and 9% of total R&D spending, respectively. R&D spending grew in the software and Internet, chemicals and energy, industrials, and auto sectors by 16.5%, 4.2%, 4.1% and 2.1%, respectively. Five of nine industries showed lower spending, with the largest drop in the telecom sector, at 7.5%. Geographically, China’s growth in R&D spending was the highest, up 45.9%, with 3.4%, 2.5% and 12.9% growth in the US, Europe and Rest of the World, respectively. Japan’s spending fell by 14%.

Source: Strategy&