Large Corporations Increase R&D Investment Despite Earnings Decline... Samsung Electronics Leads in Investment Amount

CEO Score Surveys 224 of Top 500 Companies
Invests 73.4238 Trillion KRW in R&D
Samsung Electronics Tops in Investment Amount and Growth Scale

Despite a decline in performance last year, major domestic companies increased their research and development (R&D) investment by 9.4% compared to the previous year. Among them, Samsung Electronics invested the most.

Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, on the 9th, an investigation of 224 companies that disclosed R&D expenses among the top 500 domestic companies by sales found that their R&D investment last year totaled 73.4238 trillion won. This is an increase of 6.2825 trillion won (9.4%) from the previous year (67.1413 trillion won).

Although sales and operating profits both declined due to the economic downturn, R&D investment for future preparation actually increased. The ratio of R&D investment to sales also rose by 0.32 percentage points in one year, from 3.07% in 2022 to 3.39% in 2023.

Among the surveyed companies, Samsung Electronics had the highest R&D investment. Samsung Electronics' R&D investment last year was 28.3528 trillion won, an increase of 3.4236 trillion won (13.7%) compared to the previous year. Despite a 14.3% decrease in sales last year, Samsung Electronics was the only company among those surveyed to invest more than 20 trillion won in R&D.

Following Samsung Electronics were LG Electronics (4.2834 trillion won), SK Hynix (4.1884 trillion won), Hyundai Motor Company (3.9736 trillion won), Kia (2.6092 trillion won), LG Display (2.3995 trillion won), LG Chem (2.0857 trillion won), Naver (1.9926 trillion won), Hyundai Mobis (1.5941 trillion won), and Kakao (1.2236 trillion won). The top 10 companies accounted for 71.8% of the total R&D investment among the surveyed companies.

Samsung Electronics also led in the largest increase in R&D investment last year. Hyundai Motor Company and Kia followed, increasing their investments by 633 billion won (18.9%) and 446.2 billion won (20.6%), respectively. LG Chem ranked fourth with an increase of 305.7 billion won (17.2%), and LG Electronics was fifth with an increase of 246.4 billion won (6.1%). Other companies with notable increases included Hanwha Aerospace (227.5 billion won↑), Hyundai Mobis (221.4 billion won↑), and Kakao (202.3 billion won).

On the other hand, SK Hynix recorded the largest decrease in R&D investment last year. SK Hynix's R&D investment was 4.1884 trillion won, down 716.9 billion won (14.6%) from the previous year. Netmarble ranked second in R&D investment reduction, with a decrease of 187.3 billion won (21.8%) to 670.8 billion won.

Celltrion ranked third, reducing its R&D investment by 69.7 billion won (16.9%) to 342.7 billion won, and Korea Aerospace Industries ranked fourth, cutting its R&D investment by 43.7 billion won (21.1%) to 163.2 billion won. Notably, Chong Kun Dang, which had been recognized for maintaining an R&D investment ratio above 10%?a high level among domestic pharmaceutical companies?saw its R&D investment ratio relative to sales fall below 10% last year, dropping to 9.06% from 12.19% the previous year, a decrease of 3.13 percentage points.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.