The Industrial Research Institute reports that R&D spending by one thousand leading US R&D firms rose 9.9% last year to $216,951.8 million, down from 12.1% growth in 2006. Sales for the firms rose 7.4% last year to $4,999,500.5 million, resulting in R&D totaling 4.3% of sales. R&D as a percentage of profit was 37.9%, as profit rose 8.0% to $571,831.4 million. Capital spending grew 2.1% to $249,243.2 million. Comparing the top 100 US and non-US R&D companies, in 2007, US firms’ investments in R&D grew 9.6% to $163,678.9 million, while non-US firms’ R&D spending increased 9.2% to $141,717.8 million. As a percentage of sales, the US firms’ R&D spending was 5.4%, compared to 3.7% for non-US companies. However, 2007 sales for the non-US firms rose 5.9% to $3,882,135.9 million versus 7.1% growth for the US firms to $3,042,365.2 million. Capital spending for the non-US and US companies rose 6.5% and 0.3% to $324,283.0 million and $161,806.6 million, respectively.

Source: Industrial Research Institute