In the ranking of companies with the highest research spending worldwide, the German automobile manufacturer VW has to admit defeat to Amazon. The Internet giant is in first place with $16.1 billion in the last completed fiscal year, followed by Alphabet with $13.9 billion. This emerges from a study by Strategy&, the strategy consultancy of the auditing and consulting group PwC.
Volkswagen had taken first place in the ranking for five years in a row. With 12.1 billion US dollars, the car company is now only in fifth place and has to cede all of the top places to tech companies, as the graphic shows.