ASML last year cemented its status as the company that spends the most on R&D activities on Dutch soil. According to the annually published R&D Top 30 by Technisch Weekblad, the equipment vendor increased its budget from 850 to 1078 million euros, while runner-up Philips saw a slight decrease from 716 to 702 million euros. Worldwide the former consumer electronics giant retains the top spot, however: 1759 million euros to ASML’s 1576 million euros. Chipmaker NXP comes in at fifth place nationally (213 million euros), but third worldwide (1441 million euros) as far as high-tech companies go.
Collectively, the top 30 companies spent 4126 million euros on ‘Dutch’ research in 2018, about 180 million euros more than the year before. Discounting ASML’s 228 million euro spending hike, companies on average invested slightly less year-on-year. By and large, most of the cut backs occurred at top 10 companies, which was partly compensated for by increased activities at SMEs.
