KCCI Analyzes EU's Top 2,000 Companies
China's R&D Investment Grows 11.5 Times in a Decade
Samsung Leads Semiconductor R&D Investment
SK Hynix Ranks Second in Investment Growth Rate
China's BYD Boosts Automotive R&D Investment by 15.8 Times
"Institutional Support Such as Tax Incentives Needed"
Over the past decade, research and development (R&D) investment by Chinese companies has surged overwhelmingly, shifting the global R&D investment axis toward the United States and China. Consequently, there is an urgent need for us to devise countermeasures.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced on the 5th that this was revealed after analyzing the list of the top 2,000 companies in the '2024 R&D Investment Scoreboard' published by the European Union (EU) Joint Research Centre last December.
The influence of Chinese companies has grown remarkably. Looking at the top 2,000 companies in R&D investment by country over the past decade, China showed overwhelming growth, ranking second after the United States in terms of the number of companies and investment amount as of 2023. The number of Chinese companies included in the top 2,000 increased by 405 over 10 years, from 119 in 2013 to 524 in 2023, and the investment amount rose 11.5 times from 11.8 billion euros to 215.8 billion euros.
Among the top 10 countries, China was the only one where both the number of companies and investment amount continuously increased over the past decade. The number of companies in the United States, ranked first, increased by 13 from 668 to 681 over 10 years. In terms of investment amount, it was 191 billion euros in 2013, accounting for 36.1% of the total, but increased 2.8 times to 531.9 billion euros in 2023, representing 42.3% of the total.
As of 2023, the number of companies from the United States and China included in the top 2,000 accounted for 60.3% of the total. The combined R&D investment amount also reached 59.5% of the total. Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom, which led China in 2013, were pushed down in rankings due to China's rapid growth. South Korea's number of companies decreased from 54 to 40, but its investment amount increased 2.2 times.
In terms of R&D intensity, which indicates R&D investment relative to sales, the United States and China showed significant increases. The U.S. rose 3.4 percentage points from 5.1% in 2013 to 8.5% in 2023, while China increased 2.5 percentage points from 1.4% to 3.9%. South Korea's R&D intensity rose 1.6 percentage points from 2.4% to 4.0%.
Professor Park Ki-soon of Sungkyunkwan University's Graduate School of China Studies analyzed, "China is supporting companies to an unimaginable extent to win the technological hegemony competition between the U.S. and China by strengthening basic technology R&D, providing large-scale investment funds and R&D support, tax incentives, and deregulation to foster artificial intelligence (AI)."
Analyzing R&D investment by advanced industry sectors, Nvidia in the semiconductor industry showed the fastest growth, increasing 8.2 times from 960 million euros in 2013 to 7.9 billion euros in 2023. Following were South Korea's SK Hynix with a 6.7-fold increase, U.S. AMD with 6.1 times, and Taiwan's MediaTek with 5.1 times growth.
Samsung Electronics led semiconductor companies with an R&D investment of 19.9 billion euros. Its R&D investment approximately doubled over 10 years. In the IT software and platform industry, U.S. Meta showed the highest growth rate, increasing 32.4 times to 33.2 billion euros compared to 10 years ago, followed by China's Tencent with a 15-fold increase and U.S. Salesforce with a 10.1-fold increase. Naver's R&D investment approximately doubled compared to 10 years ago.
In the automotive industry, U.S. Tesla, a leader in electric vehicles, increased its R&D investment 21.5 times compared to 10 years ago, followed by China's BYD with a 15.8-fold increase and India's Tata Motors with a 2.9-fold increase. In terms of investment amount, traditional automakers such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors (GM) occupied the top ranks, while Hyundai Motor increased its investment 2.7 times over 10 years.
In the pharmaceutical industry, U.S. companies Gilead Sciences (3.4 times), AbbVie (3.1 times), Bristol Myers (3.1 times), and AstraZeneca (3 times) showed high growth rates in investment amounts. Among Korean companies, Hanmi Pharmaceutical's R&D investment doubled over 10 years, the highest among domestic firms.
Kim Hyun-soo, head of the Economic Policy Team at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "As seen with the emergence of China's DeepSea, competition among companies over leading technologies in each industry is becoming increasingly fierce," and suggested, "It is necessary to promote R&D through tax incentives and create an institutional environment through support such as the Semiconductor Special Act."
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