This article is from WeChat official account:Ningnanshan (ID: ningnanshan2017)< span class = "text-remarks">, the original title: “look at the world competition and industry trends from the global 2500 companies R & D spending”, author: Shannan Shenzhen, southern Ningxia, title figure from: vision China

Not long ago, the European Union announced the top 2500 global corporate R&D expenditures in 2020. Of course, although the title is 2020, it actually uses the full-year data of 2019. This is also the consistent style of this EU report.

For this report, domestic news only reported that Huawei’s R&D expenditure ranked third in the world, second only to Alphabet(Google’s parent company) and Microsoft did not report more information.

In fact, there are 10 companies in China that have entered the top 100. They are Huawei 3rd, Alibaba 26th, and Tencent 46th. The manufacturing industry also ranked 81st in SAIC and 95th in ZTE.

Nine of the R&D expenditures have increased, and all have double-digit growth. Only SAIC has seen a decline of 7.25%.

Let’s see if we can dig out some useful information from this report. Note that the data sample is only these 2500 large companies. Look at the strengths and weaknesses of China, the United States, Europe, and Japan, and which industries are investing in key industries.

1. The global technology expenditure is highly concentrated in the three major regions of Europe + North America + East Asia

The R&D expenditures in these three regions accounted for an astonishing proportion of 94.86%. Europe includes the European Union and the United Kingdom, North America is the United States and Canada, and East Asia is China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

If Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore are also included, it will exceed 95%.

Therefore, the distribution of science and technology on our planet is highly unbalanced. In fact, because R&D expenditures are mainly concentrated in Europe, North America, and East Asia, it is only in these places that global scientific and technological talents can find their talents. platform.

This also gives us some enlightenment. We always talk about the introduction of overseas high-tech talents, but it is actually very simple. The overseas mentioned mainly refers to North America, Japan, South Korea, and Europe, because only here can there be large scientific research platforms and Talent.

From the development history of my country’s display panel industry, aviation industry and semiconductor industry, the introduction of overseas technical talents is very concentrated. For example, the introduction of display panel talents is concentrated in South Korea and Taiwan. As long as you pay attention to the news, you can see reports that Wuhan coordinated Korean employees to fly back to Wuhan to work in 2020. In fact, a large part of these Koreans work in display panel factories in Wuhan. .

The semiconductor industry attracts the most talents from Taiwan, followed by South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

For another example, the picture below is Sergey Malozov, a Ukrainian expert from COMAC and a member of the C919 control law team. He joined COMAC in 2012. He is an associate doctor of science and technology at the Kiev Advanced Military Aviation Engineering School. He used to be a senior engineer of Antonov Design Bureau, director of flight control-navigation equipment digital simulation department, associate professor of “Kiev Polytechnic Institute” of Ukrainian National Polytechnic University, expert of airliner flight control system and engine thrust control system. With more than 20 years of aviation work experience, he has in-depth research on passenger aircraft flight control systems and engine thrust control systems.

Ukraine inherited the aviation research power of the Soviet era.

Look at the ranking of R&D expenditures of companies in various countries. In terms of total R&D expenditures in 2019, the United States is the first with 347.7 billion euros; China is second with 118.8 billion euros; Japan is third with 114.9 billion euros; Germany is fourth with 86.6 billion euros. Billion euros.

France is the world’s fifth, 33.8 billion euros; South Korea, sixth, 32.9 billion euros; Switzerland, seventh, 29.8 billion euros; the Netherlands, eighth, 20.3 billion euros; Taiwan, China, ninth, 18.1 billion euros; Sweden, tenth, 10.1 billion euros.

Note that after the top four in the United States, China, Japan, and Germany, the level of R&D expenditure dropped from more than 80 billion euros to 30 billion euros. This shows that the strength of R&D activities of these four countries is significantly better than that of other countries and regions.

Attention, Taiwan, China has actually entered the top ten in the world. Obviously, companies headed by TSMC have invested heavily in the semiconductor industry. Due to the concentrated investment in the research and development of the semiconductor industry, the semiconductor manufacturing industry in Taiwan has been leading the world for a long time. It is also the excellent performance of the electronic industry with the semiconductor industry as the core that has caused the per capita GDP of Taiwan to rise from US$25,941 in 2019. By 2020, US$28,180(data from the official website of the General Accounting Office of Taiwan, China).

There are more than 1 billion euros in research and development expenditures:

  • Ireland 9.3 billion euros, Denmark 6 billion euros, Italy 5.9 billion euros;

  • Finland 5.7 billion euros, Canada 4.9 billion euros, India 4.9 billion euros;

  • Spain 4.7 billion euros, Israel 3.1 billion euros, Belgium 2.9 billion euros;

  • Australia 2.7 billion euros,Austria 1.7 billion euros, Luxembourg and Norway 1.1 billion euros.

If you look at the map, it’s more intuitive. Using the shades of colors to represent R&D expenditures, it can be seen that they are concentrated in the three major regions of the United States, Europe, and East Asia.

Second, the general trend of Sino-US competition is becoming more and more obvious

The growth rate of R&D expenditure in 2019 is 10.8% in the United States, 5.6% in the EU, 21% in China, 1.8% in Japan, RoW(other countries in the world) 6.0% increase.

It can be seen that China and the United States, as the top two global R&D expenditures of 2500 companies, both have faster growth rates in R&D expenditure than the EU and Japan, and also faster than the global average. China and the United States are both larger than you and growing faster than you.

3. What industrial technology is human beings focusing on? Which technology tree invested the most?

We can look at the following table, which is highly concentrated in the four major industries of ICT products + medical treatment + ICT services + automobiles, or ICT + medical equipment pharmaceuticals + automobiles.industry.

The highest expenditure in 2019 is the ICT industry, 208.5 billion euros, including semiconductors, communication equipment, computer hardware, electronic and electrical product parts, etc. Obviously, giants such as Huawei, Apple, Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, TSMC, Broadcom, Intel, and SK Hynix are all in this field.

The second highest expenditure is the healthcare industry, with 185.6 billion euros, including biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, etc.

The third largest expenditure is the ICT service industry, with 152.8 billion euros, mainly Internet companies, such as Google, Facebook, Ali, Tencent, Amazon and so on.

The automotive industry is ranked fourth, with 147.3 billion euros. This is well understood. Tesla, SAIC, NIO, BYD, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi are all in this industry.

Other major industries include chemical industry, aerospace, metallurgy, and equipment manufacturing, but R&D expenditures are completely incomparable with the above four industries. The highest is 49.4 billion euros.

Let’s look at the industry differences in R&D expenditures in the United States, China, Europe and Japan, that is, what are the differences in the technology trees that everyone climbs.

What is found in the above four pictures?Is it the same?

First point, The proportion of EU and Japan’s R&D expenditure in the automotive industry is significantly higher than that of Europe and America, the EU’s 34.8%, Japan’s 31.3%, China’s 10.0%, and the United States’ 6.4% . Global car brands and technologies, Europe undoubtedly occupies the highest end, Japan is also very strong.

The second point, The proportion of R&D expenditures in the field of ICT products + ICT services between China and the United States is significantly higher than that of Europe and Japan, 54.7% in the United States, 47.5% in China, 21.2% in the EU, and 21.2% in Japan. 23.6%.

What can be found in the above two points? That is, the global auto industry’s transformation to electric vehicles is very beneficial to China and the United States, but not to Europe and Japan.

Because the ICT technology component of electric vehicles is getting higher and higher, the proportion of ICT in the value of cars is also rising, including autonomous driving, 5G network technology, car operating systems, vehicle voice control, vision processing, and so on.

In December 2017, Japan’s Honda Motor Company signed a five-year agreement with China’s SenseTime. The two parties will use Honda’s vehicle control technology system to integrate SenseTime’s visual algorithm and development platform to jointly develop a suitable L4 autonomous driving solution for passenger car scenes. For Japanese automobile companies, seeking Chinese technical support in the latest technological research and development reflects the development of the times.

Europe and Japan have invested too little in research and development of ICT technology, which has caused them to lag behind China and the United States. Europeans now use Chinese and American mobile phone brands, Huawei’s communication equipment and American social software, which is a portrayal of insufficient industrial technology investment in the final market.

Therefore, the automotive industry is very important to Europe and Japan, but if it does not catch up with the wave of electric vehicles, it is likely to lose its advantage in this core industry.

In addition, in the fields of aerospace and military industry, Japan has clearly settled in Europe and the United States. This is not surprising. After all, Japan is only a semi-colonial under the control of the United States and has no autonomy in the development of military industry. In fact, some Chinese military industry groups have not yet made the list, probably because the data has not been disclosed.

I have finished talking about the problems of Europe and Japan, let’s talk about the problems of China and the United States.

The problem in the United States is that they rely too much on ICT(ICT products + ICT services) And the medical industry, these two together accounted for 81.1% of R&D expenditure. There is also the rise of Tesla in the automotive field, but in essence it is also a strong performance of ICT technology. Compared with the ICT and medical industries, the ratio of R&D investment in the traditional automobile manufacturers, metallurgy and production equipment industry, chemical industry and other industries in the United States is a bit too small.

What are the weaknesses of China? The proportion of our investment in medical technology research and development is obviously lower than that of Europe and the United States, and also lower than that of Japan. The United States is 26.4%, the European Union is 19.2%, Japan is 12.5%, and China is 5.5%.

This industry is actually very important. The medical equipment and pharmaceutical industries must be localized as soon as possible. I think it is as important as the localization of the semiconductor industry. After all, the localization of the semiconductor industry is more a matter of money, but the localization of medical technology products is related to the lives and health rights of the Chinese people.

Because the world’s top medical technology is in the hands of Europe and the United States, the cost of high-end medical devices and drugs cannot be reduced for a long time. China must accelerate localization and promote the development of Chinese enterprise technology to reduce costs.

Attention, due to the vigorous implementation of family planning, our country will become a country that grows old before getting rich. When we reach the same aging level, our per capita GDP will be much lower than that of Europe, America and Japan. The ability to pay for mid-to-high-end medical devices and drugs is lower. Therefore, it is very important to speed up the localization in this field and reduce costs.

From the chart below, you can see the ranking of R&D expenditures in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan in different industries. In the field of ICT products and services, my country ranks second only to the United States, but in the medical and automotive fields, my country can only rank fourth, especially the medical industry with the largest investment gap.

In the field of traditional industries, my country’s R&D expenditure is similar to that of Europe and the United States.

Let’s look at the figure below again. The areas with the highest investment in various industries are marked in blue. The EU is in the automotive and industrial sectors.span class=”text-remarks” label=”Remark”>(Metallurgical industries such as steel + aluminum, machine tools, etc.) ranked first in R&D investment, Japan ranked first in chemical industry investment, and the United States in aerospace, medical , ICT products and ICT services are all ranked first. China ranks first in the “other industries” option, which shows that China’s investment in traditional industries is still relatively large.

But it also shows that although our total investment can surpass Japan and Europe, our main industries(ICT products, ICT services, automobiles, medical, metallurgy and Equipment Industry) None of us ranks first in terms of R&D investment, which shows that we are still mainly based on industry-following type, and generally the leader’s R&D investment is the largest.

Finally, let’s take a look at the changing trends of the industry. The top ten global R&D investment companies in 2019 are Alphabet(Google’s parent company) , Microsoft, Huawei, Samsung, Apple, Volkswagen, Facebook, Intel, Roche (Pharmaceutical), Johnson & Johnson.

Comparing these companies with their R&D investment in 2014, it can be seen that ICT companies such as Facebook, Huawei, Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft have increased significantly, while automotive and pharmaceutical companies such as Volkswagen, Roche, and Johnson & Johnson have increased their R&D expenditures. Relatively small.

This shows that the ICT industry is developing significantly faster.

Let’s look at the two giants in Europe and America. From 2010 to 2019, the company’s revenue and R&D expenditure changes in different industries. The big circle is the company’s revenue, the small circle is the R&D expenditure, and the two circles of the same color represent 2010 and 2019.

It can be seen that Europe’s revenue in 2019 has increased significantly compared with 2010, mainly in the automotive industry, medical industry and aerospace industry. The largest increase in investment in Europe is in the automotive industry, and medical and aerospace industries also have more Large increase, but a small base. In addition, it can be seen that Europe has indeed developed slowly in the ICT industry, lagging behind China and the United States.

In the United States, revenue in 2019 has increased significantly compared to 2010, and the largest volume is ICT products + ICT services, medical industry and automobiles. In addition, the aerospace industry also has a significant increase.

In other words, in addition to ICT, which is the largest and most promising industry, medical, automotive, and aerospace are also major industries that continue to develop and grow rapidly.

Finally, let me say that for the current China, semiconductors and automobiles are national transportation, plus medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. This is the conclusion I have drawn after long-term analysis of various industries and companies in China.

Through the analysis of the 2500 global R&D expenditures released by the European Union, the results are in fact the same. It can be seen that the ICT industry has the highest R&D investment in the world and has the fastest growth in R&D expenditure among major industries. This is why the trade war and technological war with the United States in the past two years have been highly concentrated in this industry. Companies listed on the entity list such as Huawei, ZTE, SMIC, Haikang, Dahua, SenseTime, and iFlytek are all in the ICT industry.

The semiconductor is this industryThe base of the United States is also the most critical area for us to get stuck. At present, we have no way to make more advanced process chips without American technology.

In addition, the two major industries that Europe and the United States have invested heavily in and are also growing are the automotive and medical industries. They only grow relatively slower than the ICT industry, but the industrial space is extremely huge. For China, it will surely become an outlet for localization. For example, electric vehicles, which are so popular in the investment field, are the combination of the automobile industry and the ICT industry.

The last is the aerospace industry, which is a highly monopolized industry in Europe and America. I wrote about the manufacture of large aircraft before. Japan is very weak in this regard, and the self-developed civil aviation passenger aircraft plan has been shelved. But this is not to blame for them. After all, they are the defeated countries in World War II and have no right to develop independently in the aviation field.

Western air power has always had an overwhelming advantage in the world. Since World War II, the war damage caused by air power has gradually surpassed that of the army, and air power has been fully demonstrated in the Gulf War. The bombing of Serbia in 1999 was accomplished by relying on European and American air forces, achieving zero casualties.

Therefore, the United States has firmly suppressed Japan’s aerospace technology development. In this regard, China is closely following Europe and the United States. You should understand this. In recent years, my country’s Long March 5, Long March 8, and Chang’e 5 lunar collection and soil return have been successful. The Yun-20 has been in service, especially the F-20. The US Air Force has no technical gap with my country.

The first flight of C919 is also successful. This year, our Tiangong space station will begin to launch gradually.

Of course, in general, compared with the previous three industries (ICT, automotive, medical), this is a relatively small industry.

As individuals, if we want to benefit from China’s development, we can keep up with the trend of the times.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that sentence again: Semiconductors and automobiles are national transportation, plus medical equipment + pharmaceuticals, and aerospace.

This article is from WeChat official account:Ningnanshan (ID: ningnanshan2017)< span class="text-remarks ">, Author: Shannan Shenzhen Ningnan