Companies – Corporate America is leading the way when it comes to investing in research – Volkswagen is following suit

Working in the laboratory Photo: AFP

American companies invested more in research and development last year than European and German companies. In total, the 500 companies surveyed spent 990 billion euros on research.

American companies invested more in research and development last year than European and German companies. As the consulting firm EY announced on Thursday, spending in the US will increase by 13 percent year-on-year in 2023, in Europe it will increase by seven percent and in Germany by six percent. In total, the 500 companies surveyed spent 990 billion euros on research.

Total spending increased by twelve percent year-on-year. For the study, EY examined the 500 listed companies that invest the most in development worldwide. There are more and more American companies among them: their number increased from 164 in 2022 to 169 last year.

“US companies continued to extend their leadership in research spending last year,” said Henrik Ahlers, CEO of EY. This threatens to widen the gap between the United States and Europe and Asia.

While American companies invested 533 billion euros, Japanese companies collectively invested 87 billion euros, an increase of eleven percent. German companies spent 75 billion euros on research.

German carmaker VW, however, rose to eighth place in the rankings. Volkswagen invested ten percent more in research and development in 2023 and reached 15.8 billion euros. The second European company in the top ten was the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, which took tenth place – despite a seven percent drop in spending. According to the assessment, the online giant Amazon had the largest innovation budget of around 79 billion euros, an increase of 17 percent.

In general, the research budget increased slightly last year than in 2022, where a growth of 13 percent was achieved. However, many companies soon had to contend with stagnant sales and falling profits. In 2022, however, there was a difficult situation from increased sales and profits.

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