It may come as no surprise that the companies spending the most on research and development are the tech giants. According to data collected by , Amazon wins the title of the world’s biggest spender, with R&D investments that amounted to nearly $43 billion in 2020, or about 11 percent of its revenue. Completing the podium are Alphabet and Huawei, which spent $27.6 billion and $22 billion, respectively, on innovation that year, or around 15 percent of their revenues. As our chart also shows, Meta Group (formerly Facebook) was the company in the top 7 that spent the most relative to its revenue, at 21 percent ($18.5 billion).
Nasdaq reports that the final big players to round off the top 10 include companies in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, with Volkswagen, Intel, Roche and Johnson & Johnson occupying those spots. According to the , the majority of global R&D investments are performed by just a few countries, with the U.S. accounting for 27 percent of the global share (or $656 billion) and China making up 22 percent (or $526 billion) in 2019.
