Volkswagen Group top global R&D spender in 2014; 3rd year in a row
30 October 2014
The Volkswagen Group was the top global R&D spender in 2014, according to The 2014 Global Innovation 1000 report from consultancy Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) . This marks Volkswagen’s third year in a row in the top spot. Volkswagen, which spent US$13.5 billion on R&D in 2014 according to the report, was followed closely by Samsung ($13.4 billion), then by Intel ($10.6 billion); Microsoft ($10.4 billion); and Roche ($10 billion). Toyota came in seventh with a spend of $9.1 billion, according to the report. (Toyota had been in 6th place in 2013, and in the Nº 2 spot behind Volkswagen in 2012.)
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| Screenshot from an interactive table showing top 20 R&D Spenders 2005-2014. Click to enlarge. |
In terms of the report’s ranking of the most innovative companies, of the world’s automakers only Tesla made the top 10 (coming in fifth place with 2014 R&D spending of $200 million). Apple led that list, followed by Google, Amazon and Samsung.
The report noted that “the 10 Most Innovative companies markedly outperformed the Top 10 R&D Spenders on market capitalization and profitability.”
Overall, the report found that R&D investment at the 1,000 biggest-spending public companies in the world rose by only 1.4% last year—a more modest increase than the 3.8% rise the year before and a marked drop from the 10-year average growth rate of 5.5%. R&D spending as a percentage of revenue fell by 17% between 2005 and 2014.
The software and Internet industry generated the most rapid growth (17%) in R&D spending in 2014. However, despite the industry’s ongoing increase in spending, software and Internet companies still accounted for just 9% of total corporate R&D spending in 2014. Meanwhile, the computing & electronics and healthcare industries accounted together for 50% of total innovation spending over the same period—though in 2014, those industries’ R&D spending dropped by 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively.
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