Technology
Chart: The Global Leaders in R&D Spending, by Country and Company
Chart: The Global Leaders in R&D Spending
The countries and firms that put the most into R&D
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
Given a choice of being the disruptor or the disrupted, many would prefer to choose the former.
But it’s not as easy as just flipping a switch and subsequently reaping the benefits of a forward-looking vision, new product categories, and forthcoming patents. Instead, an organization has to proactively acquire this innovation and intellectual capital from somewhere.
For many established companies, there is no other choice but to buy innovative startups through M&A to get their innovation fix, though this typically comes at a marked up price. On the flipside, especially for companies in tech, auto, and pharmaceutical spaces, innovation likely has to be in the DNA of the company culture, managerial decisions, and any new talent hired.
Global Leaders in R&D Spending
For those companies that aim to innovate internally, money needs to go into the research and development (R&D) line of their income statement.
Today’s chart looks at the countries that put the most into R&D (in % of GDP terms, and absolute $ terms), as well as the companies that have spent the most on R&D in the last 12 months trailing.
It’s also worth noting that money put into R&D is like any other investment – the money can be used wisely or simply squandered into initiatives that don’t pay off. Despite this, R&D spending is a loose approximation for global innovation.
R&D by Country
Global R&D spending is heavily concentrated in the G20 countries. In total they account for 92% of all R&D spending, and 94% of all patents granted at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.
Here is a breakdown of R&D spending by GDP of select G20 countries:
Country | R&D Spending (% GDP) |
---|---|
South Korea | 4.23% |
Japan | 3.29% |
Germany | 2.93% |
United States | 2.79% |
France | 2.22% |
Australia | 2.11% |
China | 2.07% |
Canada | 1.71% |
United Kingdom | 1.70% |
Italy | 1.33% |
Russia | 1.10% |
Turkey | 0.88% |
South Africa | 0.73% |
Argentina | 0.63% |
Mexico | 0.53% |
By total dollar spend, however, massive economies like the United States, China, and the EU take their rightful place.
Rank | Economy | R&D Spending ($) in 2015 |
---|---|---|
#1 | United States | $463 billion |
#2 | China | $377 billion |
#3 | European Union | $346 billion |
#4 | Japan | $155 billion |
#5 | South Korea | $74 billion |
R&D by Company
On a company basis, the top five R&D spenders today are mostly technology companies.
Rank | Company | R&D Spending (Last 12 months) |
---|---|---|
#1 | Amazon | $17.4 billion |
#2 | Volkswagen | $15.1 billion |
#3 | Alphabet | $14.5 billion |
#4 | Intel | $12.8 billion |
#5 | Samsung | $12.8 billion |
Interestingly, that wasn’t always the case – even as short as 10 years ago, the largest R&D spenders tended to be pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, or automobile manufacturers like GM and Volkswagen.
A final note: Amazon doesn’t list R&D on its income statement directly, and instead classifies everything under a “Technology and Content” line which includes R&D. While it is likely Amazon is an R&D leader, there isn’t an exact number for it as of now.
Technology
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.
In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.
Data and Methodology
To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.
With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.
Department | Large impact (%) | Small impact (%) | No impact (%) |
---|---|---|---|
IT | 73 | 26 | 1 |
Finance | 70 | 21 | 9 |
Customer Sales | 67 | 16 | 17 |
Operations | 65 | 18 | 17 |
HR | 57 | 41 | 2 |
Marketing | 56 | 41 | 3 |
Legal | 46 | 50 | 4 |
Supply Chain | 43 | 18 | 39 |
In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.
Where AI will make the biggest impact
Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.
Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.
Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.
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