I was reading a great article about the research and development landscape and the report that was put together by Strategy& an arm of Price Waterhouse Cooper. Technology is constantly evolving, as well as the cost of R&D that goes into making these leaps in advancements possible. $700 billion annually is spent towards corporate R&D and that number will only continue to rise. This is because companies continue to realize how undeniably important innovation has become.
This article gives a detailed look at annual corporate R&D spending. As well as how the increase has led businesses like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and GE to rank as the most innovative companies of the year. Amazon has been increasing their research and development spending for many years now. They recently became the world’s largest company spending towards research and development. They are spending over 16 billion dollars in just 2017. Evidently, just three industries account for more than 60 percent of the entire research and development spending in 2017. Those industries are computer and electronics, healthcare, and automotive. In conclusion, R&D will keep rising and companies who will not adapt will become outdated.
Furthermore, if you want to understand why R&D spending has hit record highs, check out the article here.