Corporations have two main ways of investing for the future: research and development, which
creates new products and services, and capital spending, which expands capacity through the
purchase of new equipment, software, and structures. For the first time, BusinessWeek has
identified the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 that spend the biggest portion of their
budgets on such future-oriented activities.
Company*
Sales
Capital Spending
R&D
Total Outlays**
R&D and Cap. Spending as % of Outlays
$ millions, most recent fiscal year
Applied Micro Circuits
131
13
128
220
64.30%
Biogen Idec
679
301
233
936
57.10%
PMC-Sierra
250
12
120
241
54.60%
Amgen
8,356
1,357
1,655
5,955
50.60%
BMC Software
1,419
50
586
1,291
49.30%
Gilead Sciences
868
162
165
673
48.50%
Ciena
283
30
213
525
46.10%
Advanced Micro Devices
3,519
570
852
3,341
42.60%
Broadcom
1,610
48
653
1,688
41.50%
Genzyme
1,714
260
335
1,508
39.40%
Eli Lilly
12,583
1,707
2,350
10,318
39.30%
Micron Technology
3,091
822
656
3,774
39.20%
Intel
30,141
3,656
4,360
20,645
38.80%
Chiron
1,644
139
410
1,422
38.60%
Linear Technology
807
21
105
343
36.60%
Merck
22,486
1,916
3,178
14,436
35.30%
National Semiconductor
1,983
215
353
1,617
35.10%
Adobe Systems
1,295
40
277
906
34.90%
Microsoft
36,835
1,109
7,779
25,568
34.80%
Comverse Technology
766
35
227
777
33.70%
Analog Devices
2,047
68
450
1,564
33.10%
QLogic
524
22
88
333
33.10%
LSI Logic
1,693
78
453
1,638
32.40%
Altera
827
14
179
598
32.20%
Pfizer
45,188
2,641
7,131
30,707
31.80%
Texas Instruments
9,834
800
1,725
8,000
31.60%
Veritas Software
1,747
81
302
1,235
31.00%
PeopleSoft
2,267
250
433
2,212
30.90%
eBay
2,165
365
159
1,712
30.60%
Tellabs
980
10
286
972
30.40%
*Data are available for only 230 of the S&P 500 companies. Financial companies don't report R&D spending, nor do most transportation and utility companies. Other companies report only if the amounts are judged to be
"material." Sufficient data exist only for 12 out of the 24 sectors that make up the S&P 500. Fiscal years ended on or before June 30, 2004.
**Outlays consist of capital spending plus a broad measure of operating expenses, including R&D.
Copyright 2004, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
