Global R&D Spending Surges as US, China, and South Korea Lead Tech Innovation Race

Global R&D spending has surged over the past 20 years, tripling from $672B in 1992 to over $2.2T by 2021, though growth slowed in 2020-2021.

China aims to strengthen its tech self-sufficiency and reduce foreign dependency, outlining plans to support emerging areas like quantum computing and AI.

The US, China, and South Korea lead global tech innovation, with companies like Amazon, NVIDIA, and Alphabet driving advancements in cloud computing, AI, autonomous vehicles, and language models.

The top 5 countries by total R&D spending are the US, China, Japan, Germany, and South Korea, which spent over $89B on R&D in 2021, accounting for 4.93% of its GDP.

Technological advancements like AI and machine learning could contribute over $15T to the global economy by 2030 according to PwC, underscoring these countries' strategic investments.