Chinese industry, in the context of increasing American sanctions, is forced to spend more money on its own development. This is confirmed by last year’s statistics, according to which the largest Chinese public companies collectively spent $13 billion on research and development, or about a tenth of their revenue.
Image Source: SMIC
On average, each public Chinese company spent about $59 million on R&D last year. The leader in this type of spending was SMIC, which remains the largest contract chip manufacturer, spending almost $765 million on R&D last year. The second participant in the rating cited by Chinese media is also related to the semiconductor industry: Naura Tech, a company that produces equipment for chip production, spent $508 million on R&D last year.
«Their peers followed closely behind: Wingtech ($410 million), Hygon Information ($403 million) and Will Semiconductor ($363 million) took third through fifth place, respectively. China’s leading AI accelerator startup, Cambricon Technologies, increased its development costs by 8.8% to $166 million last year. At the same time, the company’s revenue growth in the first quarter of this year was limited to 4.23% to $154 million. It also stood out for its high ratio of R&D expenses to revenue, reaching 91.3%.
Of the 221 companies included in the ranking, 168 increased their R&D spending compared to 2023. Chip manufacturing equipment maker Skyverse Technology stood out with a 118.17% increase in R&D spending, becoming the only company in China to more than double its core spending. In terms of R&D spending to revenue, Cloudwalk Technology was the leader among Chinese companies last year, raising it to 118.72%. In fact, the company spent more on R&D than it made last year.