Top 100 Companies Spent Almost $104 Billion on R&D in 1999 Says Inside R&D Annual Survey

28 June 2000
Top 100 Companies Spent Almost $104 Billion on R&D in 1999 Says Inside R&D Annual Survey

    NEW YORK - Inside R&D's annual survey of R&D spending by US companies finds 
that the Top 100 spent a total of almost $104 billion in 1999 ($103,814,441,000),
up 5.45% from 1998.

    Automakers Ford and GM flip-flopped into first and second place,
respectively.  General Motors slipped from its perennial number-one position
as the result of restated R&D expenses after its May 1999 spin-off of Delphi
Automotive Systems.  The $7.9 billion quoted as GM's 1998 R&D spending in last
year's survey has been restated as $6.3 billion -- exactly what Ford reported
spending that same year.  GM's restatement brought the adjusted total for
1998's Top 100 to $98,447,383,000.  Instead of the 8.5% increase in 1998 over
spending in 1997 as reported in last year's survey, the adjusted figure was a
less spectacular 6.75% increase over 1997's total of $92,220,500,000.

    The emerging trend is one of slower growth among the Top 100 spenders.
However, overall R&D spending in the US shows no signs of slowing down when
total industry numbers are combined with government and academic R&D
expenditures.  Total annual R&D expenditures in the US topped $247 billion,
according to NSF, an 8.8% increase over the $227 billion spent in 1998, which
was a 7.3% increase over what was spent overall in 1997.

    The Top 100 accounted for about 61% of the $169.3 billion that NSF
estimates US companies spent in 1999.  That's down from 1998, when the Top 100
accounted for about 69% of the approximately $143 billion spent by all US
companies that year.

    "Indications are that more research is being outsourced or conducted in
collaboration with government and university labs or industrial consortiums
both domestic and foreign," says Inside R&D editor Harry Goldstein.  "The
National Science Board estimates that since 1990, companies worldwide have
entered into at least 5100 multi-firm R&D alliances, spreading the wealth-and
the expenses."

    The entire survey including sector by sector analysis and detailed
spending information about each of the Top 100 is available from Technical
Insights by calling Ayana Meade at 212-850-6890.