TOYOTA spent more on research and development (R&D) than any other
company in the world in 2011, according to "Global Innovation 1,000".
This
report looks at the companies
with the 1,000 biggest R&D budgets. Toyota increased its 2010
spending by 16.5%, and the car industry as a whole increased spending by
$13.2 billion, largely to meet
fuel economy standards and improve
electronics. Two health-care companies, Roche and Pfizer, had topped the
2010 table, but dropped to third and fourth places after reducing
spending in 2011. Yet the health-care industry still supplied three of
the five biggest budgets, and accounted for 21% of the $603 billion
spent on R&D by the 1,000 companies. It is not the most
lavish-spending industry, though: that title goes to computing and
electronics, whose firms spent 28% of the total R&D expenditure and
also increased spending more than any other sector (by $13.4 billion).
Overall R&D spending in 2011 grew for the second year running.
