Which industries do the most R&D? Some suprising US data...

 I was always of the view that R&D was concentrated in a few manufacturing industries: chemicals (including pharma), computer manufacturing and transport equipment (planes, cars etc.).  Not any more.  The  US data  in "Research and Development: U.S. Trends and International Comparisons, NSB-2024-6, May 21, 2024, tells the story.

It's information, in particular R&D into software.  Data from the US shows the below 

 and the accompanying text shows the importance of information (the dark blue line above):

The rest of this section focuses on R&D activities by businesses with 10 or more domestic employees from the NCSES BERD Survey. Five industries accounted for 79% of the $602.5 billion of U.S. business R&D performed by these companies in 2021: information (including software publishing) at 25%; chemicals manufacturing (including pharmaceuticals and medicines) at 18%; computer and electronic products manufacturing (including semiconductors) at 17%; professional, scientific, and technical services (including R&D services) at 11%; and transportation equipment manufacturing (including motor vehicles and aerospace products and parts) at 8% (Figure RD-12; Table RD-6).16 Machinery manufacturing companies performed another 3%.

 

At the four-digit NAICS level, the industries with the largest R&D intensities were scientific R&D services (41%), semiconductor and other electronic components manufacturing (20%), pharmaceuticals and medicines manufacturing (16%), and software publishers (13%)."

 

The report continues:

 

"Software R&D, over half of which is performed in the information services industry, is an increasingly large

technology area of U.S. business R&D expenditures. In 2021, software R&D accounted for $257.0 billion, or 43% of $602.5

billion. In 2021, a separate 5% ($28.9 billion) was classified by businesses as R&D specifically devoted to AI

applications."

That's a staggering number. To repeat from the table, 42% of US R&D spending is on software products or embedded software in the R&D.  See the table below.  Of the manufacturing sector's spend of 326bn, 50bn is on software or related. 

Finally, a useful cross-section snapshot, including the R&D/sales ratio

notes: a Dollar values are for goods sold or services rendered by R&D-performing or R&D-funding companies located in the United States to customers outside of the company, including the U.S. federal government, foreign customers, and the company's foreign subsidiaries. Included are revenues from a company’s foreign operations and subsidiaries and from discontinued operations. If a respondent company is owned by a foreign parent company, sales to the parent company and to affiliates not owned by the respondent company are included. Excluded are intracompany transfers; returns; allowances; freight charges; and excise, sales, and other revenue-based taxes.

b Domestic R&D is the cost of R&D paid for and performed by the respondent company and paid for by others outside of the company and performed by the respondent company.

Update. 

Here are the comparable UK figures on a product basis. I take this from "expenditure on R&D performed in UK businesses: detailed product groups.  2023, from here.  

on Industries, we have 

62. Computer  progr, consultancy and related = 13% 

72. Scientific R&D 25%

21. Pharma mfring 0.9%

26. computer mfring 3.8%