Companies worldwide increase their spending on Research and Development – Switzerland ranks sixth globally

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• The top 500 companies worldwide increased their spending on research and development in 2024 by six percent – revenues only rose by three percent.
• The growth of research and development spending in North America has halved from 13.2 to 6.1 percent.
• European companies increased their spending by five percent – despite a revenue decline of two percent.
• Two European companies – Roche and Volkswagen – are among the top ten R&D investors worldwide – seven are from the USA.
• Switzerland ranks ninth among all countries globally with 14 companies in the top 500, and ranks sixth in terms of R&D spending.

Zurich, 18 June 2025 – The latest edition of the "Top 500 R&D" study by the auditing and consulting firm EY in Switzerland shows: Despite the challenging economic and geopolitical situation, the world's largest companies have continued to increase their investments in research and development (R&D). The research and development budgets of the 500 companies worldwide with the highest R&D expenditures increased by a total of six percent in 2024 – even though their revenue only grew by three percent.

European companies even faced a total revenue decline of two percent but still increased their R&D spending by five percent. Companies from North America recorded even higher growth rates in their R&D budgets (up six percent) and Asia (up seven percent).

However, in the previous year, the research budget of the top 500 companies had increased significantly by eleven percent. The spending growth was particularly dampened by US companies – from 13.2 to 6.1 percent – while Asian companies slowed their increase from 9.4 to 7.0 percent. Although European companies had the worst revenue development, the growth of their R&D budgets only slowed slightly: from 6.0 to 5.3 percent.

US Corporations Spend the Most on Innovations – Switzerland Ranks 6th

The 135 US corporations among the top 500 invested a total of 524 billion euros in innovations. In contrast, the 128 European companies in the ranking together accounted for only 231 billion euros. Looking at individual countries and the R&D expenditures of the surveyed corporations, the USA (524 billion euros) is followed by China/Hong Kong (112 billion euros), Japan (88 billion euros), Germany (79 billion euros), South Korea (40 billion euros), and Switzerland (34 billion euros). Switzerland ranks sixth, ahead of the UK (30 billion euros), France (26 billion euros), and the Netherlands (21 billion euros).

The dominance of US companies is also evident in R&D intensity, which represents the percentage of R&D spending relative to revenue: While the R&D intensity among US companies averages 7.7 percent, it is only 5.7 percent among European companies. Looking at individual countries, Dutch companies rank first with an R&D intensity of 10.0 percent, followed by the USA with the aforementioned 7.7 percent. The 14 Swiss companies surveyed excel in this regard: Switzerland ranks third worldwide with an R&D intensity of 7.1 percent. They are followed by Germany (5.5 percent), Sweden (5.3 percent), the UK (5.1 percent), and Taiwan (5.0 percent). Stefan Rösch-Rütsche, Country Managing Partner of EY in Switzerland, says: "The 14 Swiss companies surveyed demonstrate a globally high budget for research and development. This is a positive sign for the research location of Switzerland and shows that Swiss companies are willing to invest significantly in R&D to secure global competitiveness. However, it must also be noted that R&D spending has only increased by one percent compared to the previous year, while other countries have made more significant strides in this regard."

Seven US Companies in the Top 10 – Technology Corporations at the Top

Seven companies in the global top ten with the highest innovation expenditures are based in the United States. Amazon had the largest innovation budget in 2024 – nearly 82 billion euros (up three percent). In second place is Google's parent company Alphabet with development expenditures of 45.6 billion euros (up nine percent), followed by Meta Platforms (including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram) with 40.5 billion euros in research and development expenditures (up 14 percent). Two European companies also rank in the top ten: Volkswagen in seventh place (18 billion euros, up 14 percent) and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in ninth place (16.1 billion euros, up eight percent). "US companies have again increased their research spending more than their European counterparts in the past year. This further widens the gap between the USA and Europe," observes Rösch-Rütsche. "Innovation is key to long-term business success, so it should concern us if US companies consistently invest significantly more in research & development than European corporations."

14 Swiss Companies Among the Global Top 500

A total of 14 Swiss companies are among the top 500 companies with the highest research and development expenditures worldwide. Roche ranks ninth among all companies with expenditures of 16.1 billion euros in 2024. Novartis makes it into the top 100 at 18th place with R&D expenditures of 9.3 billion euros. Other rankings include Nestlé (128th, 1.8 billion euros), ABB (154th, 1.4 billion euros), Aptiv (182nd, 1.0 billion euros), DSM-Firmenich (199th, 888 million euros), Sandoz (204th, 861 million euros), Alcon (214th, 810 million euros), Givaudan (267th, 593 million euros), Swisscom (380th, 299 million euros), Sika (383rd, 292 million euros), Swatch (387th, 287 million euros), Holcim (427th, 236 million euros), and Schindler (453rd, 194 million euros). Stefan Rösch-Rütsche says: "The fact that 14 of the top 500 companies with the highest R&D expenditures worldwide are based in a relatively small country like Switzerland is a clear sign of the innovative strength of these companies and the healthy environment they find in Switzerland. Switzerland excels as a research, education, and science location with renowned universities and institutions."

¹ Analysis of the research and development intensity of the top 500 publicly listed companies with the highest research and development expenditures worldwide. Only the ongoing activities of the companies were considered. Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms were not included in the analysis.

² Amazon does not disclose its "research and development expenditures." As an approximation, the figures for "technology and content" expenditures are used here, which are higher than the actual research and development expenditures.

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