In the ranking of the world’s top 500 companies by the consulting firm EY, Switzerland came sixth in terms of total research expenditure in 2024. It featured 14 Swiss companies, such as Roche and Novartis.
The Swiss companies analysed spent a total of €34 billion (CHF32 billion) on R&D. Roche alone is responsible for half of this (€16.1 billion)..
More
More
Switzerland regains crown as world’s most competitive nation
This content was published on
Switzerland ranked world’s most competitive nation, having previously lost crown to Nordic and Asian rivals.
According to the authors of the study, Swiss companies have an above-average budget for innovation in an international comparison.
“This is a positive sign for Switzerland as a centre of research,” says Stefan Rösch-Rütsche, country managing partner at EY Switzerland.
US: R&D leader
When it comes to expenditure on R&D, the US is the clear leader (total expenditure $524 billion), with companies such as Amazon and Google. China and Hong Kong (€112 billion) and Japan (€88 billion) are also ranked in the top three for R&D expenditure.
Switzerland is preceded by Germany (4th place) and South Korea (5th). The Alpine nation is followed by the UK, France and the Netherlands.
More
More
Is Switzerland as innovative as it ranks?
This content was published on
Switzerland consistently tops rankings of the most innovative countries. What’s behind its success?
While Switzerland ranks highly, investment has slowed: up by 1% compared to the previous year. Other countries have made a “more significant leap forward”, according to the study.
The Swiss companies included in the survey were Roche, Novartis, Nestlé, ABB, Aptiv, DSM-Firmenich, Sandoz, Alcon, Givaudan, Swisscom, Sika, Swatch, Holcim and Schindler.
Translated from French by DeepL/sb
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
More
Iran will respond firmly if US gets directly involved in Israeli strikes, says UN ambassador
This content was published on
Iran says it will respond firmly to the United States if it becomes directly involved in Israel’s military campaign, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Wednesday.
Switzerland must better protect whistleblowers, says OECD
This content was published on
Switzerland must step up its anti-corruption efforts and provide better protection for whistleblowers while increasing fines for guilty firms, an OECD anti-bribery group says.
Trust in Swiss news is rising, Reuters report shows
This content was published on
Trust in the news has increased in Switzerland, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. Almost half (46%) of adults who took part in a recent survey said they generally trusted Swiss news, up 5%.
Five Swiss diplomats leave Tehran as Israel-Iran war enters sixth day
This content was published on
Five Swiss diplomats left the Iranian capital with their families by land by their own means on Tuesday, a Swiss foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed.
Ex-employee of Bank Pictet convicted of money laundering
This content was published on
The Geneva-based bank Pictet has been fined CHF2 million for shortcomings in its organisation which enabled a former asset manager to commit serious money laundering.
