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  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
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  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

2024 R&D Spending and Intensity Benchmarks

By: PRLog
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Sept. 8, 2025 - PRLog -- Schonfeld & Associates, Inc. has released the latest edition of its annual study R&D Ratios & Budgets. The new research report covers R&D spending in fiscal 2024 by more than 2,700 individual publicly traded companies within 280 industries.

For each company, the study presents 2024 revenue, R&D spending in fiscal 2024 and 2023, R&D Intensity ratio for 2024 as well as the lowest and highest intensity ratios during the past five years along with annual growth rates in R&D spending and revenue. For each industry, 2024 and 2023 revenue and R&D spending are reported along with R&D Intensity ratio for 2024 as well as with growth rates in R&D spending and revenue. R&D Intensity is the ratio of R&D spending to sales.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to be the biggest R&D investor in fiscal 2024 with budgets of drug companies increasing by over 6% to $194 billion. Software companies contributed a total of over $117 billion to this investment pool.

The biggest single R&D investor in 2024 was Alphabet at over $49 billion, followed by Meta at $43 billion, and then Microsoft and Apple at over $31 billion each. Firms involved with digital content are investing much more heavily than those in more traditional arenas.

Pharmaceutical firms continued significant R&D spending in 2024. Merck, the top spender at $17.9 billion, is followed by Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Astrazeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Novartis each spending over $10 billion. The biotech industry, led by Gilead, grew R&D by over 12% to over $41 billion. Electromedical apparatus makers, led by Medtronic, spent a total of over $3.5 billion, a slight decrease from 2023.

R&D budgets of semiconductor makers grew to over $81 billion, an increase of just less than 15%. Intel had the largest R&D budget, $16 billion, a 3% increase from 2023. R&D budgets of the industries that are major suppliers to the infrastructure of the Internet cloud continue robust R&D spending to remain competitive.

The 2024 R&D spending of the automotive industry, led by General Motors, Toyota and Ford each spending over $8 billion, was up slightly from the 2023 total with industry revenues up 2.5%.

R&D Ratios & Budgets is an essential reference presenting R&D spending and Intensity information published annually by Schonfeld & Associates, Inc.  The study is based on 10-K annual report information submitted to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

R&D Ratios & Budgets contains information for each of the over 2,700 individual publicly traded companies. Fiscal year 2024 revenue and R&D spending are listed as well as annual growth rates of each. R&D Intensity for 2024 is presented along with the lowest and highest value for R&D Intensity during the past five years. The range of values gives an insight into the stability of the firm's commitment to funding R&D as well as its direction.

The industry summary section within R&D Ratios & Budgets presents for each of 280 industries as defined by SIC code: total fiscal year 2024 revenue and R&D spending as well as annual growth rates of each. The industry R&D Intensity for 2024 is listed so that an individual company's value can be compared to the value for the industry as a whole.

To allow for further investigation, two Excel datafiles are available for purchase along with the PDF report that contain five years of revenue, R&D spending and R&D Intensity Ratio information. One file contains company data and the other industry information.

The 2025 edition of the R&D Ratios & Budgets PDF study is $395 and the study along with Excel datafiles is $495. Contact Schonfeld & Associates, Inc., 1932 Terramar Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23456. Call for more information or to place an order: 800-205-0030 or visit https://www.saibooks.com/product/r-d-ratios-budgets-2

Contact
Carol J Greenhut
***@saibooks.com

Photos: (Click photo to enlarge)

Schonfeld & Associates, Inc. Logo 2024 R&D Intensity by Sector


Source: Schonfeld & Associates, Inc.

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