Top 100 tech companies outperformed S&P 500 in R&D investment
The world’s 100 leading technology companies outperformed the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes across a number of areas in 2016, including research and development (R&D).
Yesterday, January 17, Thomson Reuters released its inaugural list of the top 100 companies, a report which identifies the industry’s most operationally sound and financially successful organisations.
The top technology companies increased their year-on-year R&D investment by 13.09%.
This compares to the S&P 500 Information Tech Index, which rose by 12.34%; the Nasdaq Index, which grew by 12.22%, and the S&P 500, which had a 3.88% increase.
“The amount a company spends on R&D is an indicator of its financial status and eye toward growth. Typically, higher R&D investments are a sign of corporate health and longevity,” noted the report.
Thomson Reuters identified the top 100 companies using a 28-data-point algorithm, with a methodology that measured performance across eight pillars.
One of the pillars—innovation—covers the number of granted patents that are issued each year to the company, the ratio of granted patents to applications, and the amount of money spent on R&D.
Unsurprisingly, the top ten of the 100 featured Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Alphabet and Apple.
Nearly half of the companies are headquartered in the US, with Japan and Taiwan the next most prolific regions with 13 of the top companies each.
Alex Paladino, global managing director of Thomson Reuters’ technology practice group, said: “Today, we’re watching the gradual evolution from the knowledge economy into the age of artificial intelligence and virtuality. With it, we are also experiencing a fundamental shift in what it means to be a leader in this rapidly changing marketplace.”
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