According to news on December 19, the European Commission recently released the latest "2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" (The 2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard), which counts the top 2,500 companies in R&D investment. It shows that the total R&D amount of these companies in 2022 increased by 12.8% compared with the same period in 2021, reaching a record-breaking 1.2499 billion euros.

at the same time,A list of the Top 50 companies was also announced, with China's Huawei ranked fifth.

Judging from the regions where these 2,500 companies belong, 827 companies from the United States entered the list, ranking first, 6 more companies than in 2021, with a total R&D investment of 526.5 billion euros;

Mainland China has 679 companies on the list, ranking second, one more than in 2021, with a total R&D investment of 222 billion euros;

Japan has 229 companies on the list, ranking third, but 4 fewer than in 2021, with a total R&D investment of 116.2 billion euros;

The EU has 113 companies on the list, ranking fourth (Germany ranks first in the EU with 113 companies on the list);

Switzerland has 52 companies on the list, ranking fifth, a decrease of 3 companies compared with 2021;

South Korea has 47 companies on the list, ranking sixth, but 6 fewer than in 2021; the United Kingdom has 95 companies on the list, the same as in 2021, ranking seventh;

Taiwan, China, has 77 companies on the list, ranking eighth, a decrease of 6 compared to 2021;

22 Indian companies entered the list, ranking ninth, a decrease of 2 companies compared with 2021;

Canada has 29 companies on the list, ranking tenth, one more than in 2021.

Judging from the proportion of R&D investment in each region, the United States accounted for 33.08% of the companies on the list, accounting for 42.1% of the total R&D investment.China’s R&D investment accounts for 17.8%, the EU is 17.5 (of which Germany accounts for 8.3%), and Japan accounts for 9.3%.

Judging from the ranking of the R&D investment amount of the Top 50 companies, the company with the highest R&D investment in the world in 2022 is Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reaching 37.034 billion euros;

Meta ranked second with 31.52 billion euros; Microsoft ranked third with 25.497 billion euros; Apple ranked fourth with 24.612 billion euros;

Ranking fifth is the Chinese mainland company Huawei, with R&D investment of 20.925 billion euros;

Volkswagen ranks sixth, with R&D investment of 18.908 billion euros; followed by South Korea's Samsung Electronics in seventh place, Intel in eighth place, ROCHE in ninth place, and Johnson & Johnson in tenth place.

The report also shows that the top 50 companies have significantly increased R&D investment in 2022, with Meta (a year-on-year increase of 36%), Nvidia (39%), AMD (76%) and TSMC (ranked 42nd, a year-on-year increase of 30.9% to 4.985 billion euros) having the most significant changes.

Among the top 2,500 companies in the world, the top 50 (mainly the top 7 of the top 10) are also the largest contributors to R&D growth.Of the total growth in global R&D in 2022, 25% will come from these companies.

It should be pointed out that the ranking of the top 50 companies is relatively stable compared to 2021. Only Nippon Denso, which ranked 50th in 2021, fell out of the top 50 to 53rd in 2022. AMD entered the top 50 list due to a 76% increase in R&D investment, ranking 44th.

If we look at the ICT industry alone (including companies that produce computer hardware, electronic and electrical equipment, semiconductors, and telecommunications equipment), the top ten manufacturers in R&D investment in the ICT industry in 2022 are:

Apple (24.612 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 20%),

Huawei (20.925 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 11%),

Samsung Electronics (18.435 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 10%),

Intel (16.434 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 15%),

Qualcomm (€7.682 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14%),

NVIDIA (€6.882 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39%),

TSMC (€4.985 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31%),

AMD (4.692 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 76%),

ASML (3.072 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 26%),

CATL (3.072 billion euros, a year-on-year surge of 110%).

According to the report, the ICT industry is the industry with the largest R&D investment in the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, with R&D investment reaching 285.6 billion euros (243.1 billion euros adjusted for inflation).

Overall, the number of ICT vendors in the scoreboard has decreased from 591 (23.6%) in 2012 to 470 (18.8%) in 2022.

Although the number of companies has decreased, the overall R&D investment has remained quite stable, falling only slightly from 24.2% in 2012 to 22.9% in 2022. Overall, R&D investment in the ICT sector has grown at an average annual rate of 6.1% (4.8% adjusted for inflation) since 2012.

Among them, the computer hardware industry has the strongest growth, with an average annual compound growth rate of 8.7%, followed by the semiconductor industry, with an average annual compound growth rate of 7.1%, the electronic and electrical equipment industry, an average annual compound growth rate of 6.4%, and the telecommunications equipment industry, an average annual compound growth rate of 5.3%.

Looking specifically at the more segmented semiconductor industry, data from the "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" shows that the United States occupies a dominant position in this field.

Among them, American companies account for 37.4% of the total number of semiconductor companies among the top 2,500 companies in R&D investment according to the "2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard", but R&D investment has reached 62.6% (50.824 billion euros) of the total R&D investment of all semiconductor companies of 84.1 billion euros.

Among them, the manufacturer with the largest R&D investment among U.S. semiconductor manufacturers is Intel, ranked 8th, with R&D investment of 16.4 billion euros; NVIDIA, ranked 26th, with R&D investment of 6.9 billion euros; AMD ranked 44th, with R&D investment of 4.7 billion euros.

In addition, semiconductor companies in South Korea, Taiwan, and the European Union also invest heavily in R&D.

TSMC, ranked 42nd, has a R&D investment of 4.985 billion euros in 2022; SK Hynix, ranked 54th, has a R&D investment of 3.3 billion euros; ASML, ranked 64th, has a R&D investment of 3.1 billion euros; NXP Semiconductors, ranked 111th, has a R&D investment of 2 billion euros; Infineon, ranked 113th, has a R&D investment of 1.9 billion euros.

Although the number of semiconductor companies in mainland China on the list accounts for 14.4% of the total number of semiconductor companies on the list,, but the total R&D investment is only 2.862 billion euros, accounting for only 3.5% of the total R&D investment of all semiconductor companies on the list.

Among them, the top-ranked Chinese semiconductor company is TCL Zhonghuan, ranked 508th, with a R&D investment of 348 million euros.