The 2025 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard

The EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard tracks and compares the performance of the EU's leading industrial R&D investors with their global counterparts. Since 2004, it has provided valuable insights and data for companies, researchers, and policymakers.

The global top 2 000 R&D investors in the 2025 Scoreboard are based in 45 countries and control over 500 000 corporate subsidiaries. In 2024, they invested EUR 1 446 billion in R&D, representing over 90% of global business-funded R&D. This group includes 318 EU-based companies (16.2% of total R&D investment), 674 US firms (47.1%), 525 Chinese firms (16.1%), 192 Japanese firms (7.8%), and 291 companies from other regions (12.9%). As a novelty, the 2025 Scoreboard includes Amazon, whose estimated R&D investment makes it the world’s leading R&D investor (EUR 65 billion).

In 2024, global R&D investment grew by 6.3% (4.0% adjusted for inflation), slightly more than in 2023 but below the 10-year average of 7.5%. EU companies increased nominal R&D investment by only 2.9%, lagging behind other regions: ROW (8.1%), US (7.8%), Japan (7.1%), and China (3.9%). US big tech companies, particularly in ICT software and hardware, drove much of this growth.

The ICT software sector represented 24.9% of global R&D investment, with US firms contributing 77%. This concentration is unprecedented since the first Scoreboard edition over two decades ago. Together with ICT hardware (22.0%), health (19.9%), and automotive (13.6%), these sectors accounted for over 80% of total R&D. US companies lead in ICT software, hardware, and health, while EU firms continue to lead in automotive R&D but face increasing challenges in ICT software.

R&D investment is increasingly concentrated among US big tech giants. Since 2011, the top 5 companies have doubled their share of global R&D investment among the top 2 000 firms, now making up approximately 15% of the total. This concentration is also reflected in profits and sales, with their profit share rising from 3% to 15% and sales share from 2.3% to 6.6%.

Total capital expenditure (capex) rose by 7.7%, driven primarily by US ICT software firms, whose capex surged by 50.5% as they rushed to build data centres and related infrastructure for the AI boom. By contrast, EU energy companies strongly increased their capex (up 23%), signalling a sustained focus on the green transition. China’s capex fell by 2.2% – its first decline since 2016 – reflecting pronounced contractions in construction & materials, automotive and industrials.

The extended sample of the top 800 R&D investing companies in the EU spans 20 Member States, collectively investing EUR 245.5 billion in R&D in 2024. Germany and France lead in company numbers and R&D investment. In 2024, energy was the fastest-growing sector within the EU, driven by developments in green and renewable energy technologies. Meanwhile, the EU automotive sector, after strong R&D growth in previous years, stagnated in 2024.

This year, the EU 800 analysis includes a new breakdown of EU Scoreboard companies by European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) performance groups: innovation leaders, strong innovators, and moderate innovators. Over the past decade, companies in innovation leader countries have experienced an average annual R&D investment growth of 6.8%, outpacing strong innovator countries (4.6%) and moderate innovator countries (2.5%). The analysis suggests that framework conditions in innovation leader countries favour the creation and scaling of small, R&D-intensive firms, whereas moderate innovator countries see fewer R&D-intensive new entrants and lower R&D investment per employee.