China’s top 500 companies by R&D spending and patent ownership

2022/08/11

 

On Oct. 12, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), a Chinese organization assisting the government in managing China’s private sector economy, released a report reviewing China’s innovation landscape listing top 1000 Chinese privately-owned companies that spend the most in research and development (R&D) and own the most patents respectively.

The total R&D spending of the top 500 companies amounts to 742.9 billion yuan ($115.3 billion) with a whopping sum of 141.9 billion yuan ($22 billion) ranking Huawei the biggest spender. The top 500 companies own 330,000 patents altogether, with 90,000 patents ranking Huawei the biggest owner.

The report finds that the top three technological fields of R&D spending are 1) manufacture of computers, communications devices, and other electronic devices, 2) the internet and related services, and 3) manufacture of electrical machinery and equipment. Their respective spending numbers 219.2 billion yuan ($34 billion), 166.8 billion yuan ($25.9 billion), and 62.6 billion ($9.7 billion).