… die voestalpinewhich increased by twelve percent to 214 million euros compared to 2022.
The Linz IT provider Control complements the top 3 in Austria with an investment of 196 million (+11% compared to the previous year). With an increase of 136 percent compared to the previous year and 69 million euros invested increased Lenzing in the top 10 in 2023.
Fabasoft is the most research-intensive
The R&D share of sales is also an important key figure. Here the top 10 companies in Austria are presented by the Linz software company Fabasoft which invests 31.5 percent of its sales in R&D. Technology companies follow further behind Control with 16 percent and Kapsch TrafficCom with 13.4 percent. ams-Osram comes in fourth place in this ranking.
For the EY study, the research and development intensity of the 30 listed companies in Austria and the 500 listed companies worldwide with the highest spending on research and development was analyzed.
Globally, the ranking leads as well as in 2022 Amazon (79,183 million euros, +17%), followed by Alphabet (42,011 million euros, +15%) as well Meta Platforms (35,589, +9%). Ranked 4th with Merck & Co not just another US company, but also a newcomer to the top 10: The pharmaceutical company invested 125 percent more in R&D in 2023 than in the previous year and spent a total of 28,235 million euros.
Austria is represented by three companies in the top 100, ams-Osram, voestalpine and Kontron.
IT industry is the most research-intensive
“Eight of the top 10 corporations with the highest R&D spending have their headquarters in the USA. Samsung Electronics based in South Korea ranked 7th as well Volkswagen based in Germany in 8th place are the only outliers. What’s particularly exciting is that four of the top five have a digital business model,” analyses Gunther ReimoserCountry Managing Partner of EY Austria.
“If you take a look at the R&D intensity in Austria, the IT industry is way ahead – Austrian companies with a strong focus on research and development are clearly following the trend.”
R&D spending stagnated
While the total sales of domestic companies fell by 15 percent compared to the previous year and profits (EBIT) also fell by 41 percent, R&D expenditure remained balanced. From 2022 to 2023, Austrian companies reduced this by just one percent, the analysis shows. Specifically, from 1,908 million euros to 1,884 million euros. At the same time, the average R&D intensity increased from 4.0 to 4.2 percent.
