Aliki Georgakaki, James Gavigan, and Alexander Tübke.
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.
A new analysis of R&D investment flows between US multinational enterprises and their foreign affiliates, as well as foreign multinationals’ affiliates in the US, reveals substantial two-way R&D links between the EU and the US. The EU remains the largest destination for US R&D abroad, although its share has declined. Between 2013 and 2022, US firms increased their overseas R&D by 65%, but the EU's share fell by approximately one quarter, to 30.6%. Emerging economies like China and India are attracting more R&D from the US, while the EU's R&D flow balance with the US has shifted further into deficit.
Finally, a revised analysis of green patenting confirms that EU companies lead globally in green inventions related to circularity, energy-intensive industries, and clean transport but lag in twin transition-related inventions. In cumulative international green patent filings, the EU continues to lead alongside Japan, although China is rapidly catching up. As of 2021, the EU specialises in energy-intensive industries and circularity, ranks second to Japan in clean transport, but underperforms in green and digital (twin transition) inventions. Germany and France remain dominant contributors across most key technology areas, while some Member States (e.g. Sweden, Finland, and Ireland) demonstrate strengths in the twin transition domain.
In accordance with the Commission's open science practice, the Scoreboard data is made publicly available on this website.