U.S. companies investing in foreign R&D

U.S. companies spent 18 percent of their research and development dollars outside of the United States in 2013, according to data recently released by the NSF. The $73 billion in foreign R&D is concentrated in the information industry, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and automobiles and parts. Those four industries accounted for 52 percent of all foreign R&D performance by U.S. companies, while those same industries were less concentrated in the U.S., representing 45 percent of the total domestic R&D performance. The United Kingdom and Germany are the two countries receiving the largest amount of foreign R&D performance by U.S. companies, with Europe as a whole representing nearly half of the total. The Asia and Pacific region accounted for another 31 percent, with India and China being the two largest locations in the region for foreign R&D performance. Data are from the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS), cosponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation and by the Census Bureau.