According to an analysis, numerous US companies have once again increased their spending on research and development significantly more than those in Europe and Asia. The 500 companies worldwide with the highest research budgets spent 990 billion euros in this area in 2023, 12 percent more than the year before. This emerges from a new study by the Auditing and consulting company EY published on Thursday.
According to the information, among these 500 companies were 169 corporations from the United States with a total budget of 533 billion euros for research and development. This is an increase of 13 percent compared to the previous year. The companies followed in the country rankings Japan (87 billion euros) and Germany (75 billion euros) with growth of 11 and 6 percent respectively. The European companies in the group examined invested a total of 227 billion euros in research and development (plus 7 percent), those from Asia and the Pacific region 220 billion euros (plus 11 percent).
EY boss: Scissors threaten to diverge further
According to EY Germany boss Henrik Ahlers (57), the fact that despite the economic headwind continued to be heavily invested in the area is also due to the bitter competition for technological leadership. US companies further expanded their lead in research spending last year – even though they also only recorded slight sales growth and a significant decline in profits. The scissors between the USA as well as Europe and Asia are in danger of diverging further.
However, according to Ahlers, investments in research and development are the innovations of tomorrow and the profits of the day after tomorrow. “In very difficult economic times, the German economy in particular should not save money in the wrong places with its premium demands and thereby endanger its long-term competitiveness,” he warned.
Number of US companies in the top group is growing
The number of US companies included in the group examined has also grown in recent years. In 2018, 140 US companies were among the 500 listed companies with the highest research and development budgets worldwide. The number of European companies in the ranking fell slightly from 142 to 139 over the same period, and the number of Asian companies fell from 213 to 180.
31 companies from Germany made it into the ranking Volkswagen also one in the top ten. The car manufacturer increased its research budget by 10 percent to 15.8 billion euros. In the German top 10, seven out of ten companies increased their spending – just Bavarian, Merck and BASF Expenditures fell, in some cases significantly.