Samsung Electronics has shown the largest increase in research and development (R&D) investment among the top 20 global semiconductor companies last year. Despite facing challenges in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market and experiencing a slowdown in performance, Samsung Electronics continues to make bold investments in R&D for future preparation.

According to a report on global semiconductor companies’ 2024 R&D investment released by market research firm TechInsights on Sept. 2, the total investment of the top 20 companies in R&D last year was $98.68 billion, a 17% increase from the previous year.

Intel made the largest R&D investment last year ($16.546 billion). However, Samsung Electronics showed the highest annual growth rate (71.3%). TechInsights evaluated, “Samsung Electronics is competing in the cutting-edge process node sector with leading companies such as Taiwan’s TSMC, Intel, and Rapidus, while also fiercely competing in the DRAM and NAND flash markets, which have faced difficulties over the past three years.”

Intel, which incurred a loss of $18.8 billion last year alone, invested $16.546 billion in R&D for its foundry business, including the 18A (1.8 nanometer) process, a 3.1% increase from the previous year. NVIDIA ranked second, recording $12.5 billion, a 47% increase from the previous year. Samsung Electronics significantly increased its R&D investment to $9.5 billion from $5.5 billion the previous year. In terms of investment amount compared to the previous year, its ranking jumped from 7th to 3rd place.

Intel had the highest R&D investment ratio to sales (33.6%), followed by Broadcom (30.3%), Qualcomm (25.9%), and AMD (25.0%), with U.S. semiconductor companies dominating the top ranks. The average R&D expenditure to sales ratio for the top 20 companies was 15.8%. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix (000660) were lower than the overall average at 11.7% and 6.99%, respectively. In the case of SK hynix, although it increased its investment by more than 32% from the previous year, its R&D ratio to sales decreased as its sales nearly doubled.

TechInsights predicts that NVIDIA may rank first in R&D investment next year. While Intel’s investment ratio to sales last year reached 33.6%, newly appointed CEO Pat Gelsinger reduced R&D investment in March and plans additional cuts in 2026. In contrast, NVIDIA spent 10.8% of its sales of $115.62 billion on R&D last year and has been increasing related investments for four years.

By: DocMemory
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