China Rises in Global Chemical R&D: 25 Firms Among Top 2,000

The European Commission recently released its 2025 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, highlighting the global landscape of corporate research and development. According to the report, 25 Chinese chemical companies have made it into the top 2,000 global R&D investors.

The report shows that among the top 2,000 companies, 98 are chemical enterprises, which together invested €26 billion in R&D in 2024, with an average investment of approximately €132 million per company.

In the chemical sector, BASF remains the leader, investing €2.1 billion in R&D, ranking 121st overall. Syngenta follows with €1.71 billion, ranking 149th, while Codiva invested €1.34 billion, securing 194th place. Other top-ranking chemical companies include Sumitomo Chemical, Dow, Mitsubishi Chemical, Asahi Kasei, International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), and Clariant.

By country, Japan has the highest number of chemical companies on the list with 27, followed by China with 25. The United States and Germany have 19 and 8 respectively, while Switzerland has 5 companies.

The report also emphasizes that the total R&D investment of the top 2,000 companies reached €144.6 billion in 2024, accounting for more than 90% of global corporate R&D spending. Regionally, the United States leads with 674 companies on the list, followed closely by China with 581, while the EU and Japan contribute 318 and 192 companies respectively.

Among the top ten companies overall, Amazon, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Meta (Facebook's parent company), Microsoft, Apple, Huawei, Samsung Electronics, Volkswagen, Johnson & Johnson, and Intel hold the leading positions.