Nvidia’s success in accelerating artificial intelligence computing is the result of years of dedicated work. Recently, the company’s research and development budget is twice as high as AMD’s core spending, although both companies collectively lag behind Intel’s spending.
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The Tech Fund study, the results of which are referenced by TechSpot, covers the period from 2013 to the present. As it turns out, ten years ago Nvidia and AMD spent approximately the same amount annually on research and development, and even last year the difference was about $1.5 billion. But this year Nvidia intends to spend about $12 billion on related needs. while AMD’s budget will be approximately half that. This is logical in the sense that companies typically tie R&D costs to their revenues in a certain proportion, and Nvidia’s revenues have grown significantly over the past couple of years, so it can afford a noticeable increase in development costs.
At the same time, Intel is ahead of both of these competitors. Specifically, it spent more than $16.52 billion on research and development in 2023, more than Nvidia and AMD combined. This year, Intel expects to meet its core expenses in the range from $17 billion to $20 billion. However, if Intel and AMD are forced to distribute this budget between various product lines, then Nvidia can afford to seriously concentrate only on the development of computing accelerators. After all, they now bring her about 90% of all revenue.
Capitalization values do not reflect the companies’ R&D activity. If Nvidia recently became the most valuable company in the world with a capitalization of more than $3.4 trillion, then AMD is content with 45th place with $229 billion, and Intel has completely slipped to 160th with $107 billion in capitalization.
Apple still remains the leader in research expenditures; it allocated $27 billion for relevant needs in 2023 and $31 billion between September last and September this year.