8 major R&D moves this week: Roche/Genentech moves to Harvard, TSMC invests $100B, ThyssenKrupp cuts jobs and more

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending March 7, 2025, closed at 4,106.42 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index dipped –1.37% (or -56.96 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.08% (Stellantis NV) to 12.51% (Volkswagen AG). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.25% (Cisco) to -13.06% (Intel). The week was marked by significant developments in semiconductor manufacturing, healthcare R&D relocations, and automotive restructuring, with TSMC’s massive US investment and Roche’s strategic move to Harvard’s research campus headlining industry shifts.

---

Technology & Electronics

1. TSMC plans $100 billion additional US investment

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, announced last week that it plans to invest $100 billion more in chip manufacturing plants in the U.S. over the next several years. The investment will add three new chip manufacturing plants in Arizona and a new R&D center. By building new manufacturing plants, TSMC will avoid the 25% to 50% tariffs recently announced by the Trump administration for imported chips. TSMC has already committed $65 billion to three chip plants in Arizona so that this new investment will result in a total investment by TSMC of $165 billion. One of the three initial plants began production in 2024. The U.S. supported the three initial plants through its 2022 Chips Act, which earmarked tens of billions of dollars in grants for domestic chip manufacturing. OpenAI, Oracle, and the SoftBank Group have pledged as much as a combined $500 billion into building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the U.S.

2. UK not pursuing Microsoft-OpenAI investigation

Last week, United Kingdom (UK) antitrust officials said they would not pursue a formal investigation into Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, ties with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, San Francisco. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority launched a review in December 2023 to determine whether Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI and its partnership with the AI startup should be considered a defacto merger that might stifle competition in the UK. Officials have concluded that this is not the case and opted not to open a formal probe.

3. JPMorgan and Starwood fund $2 billion data center

JPMorgan Chase, New York City, and Starwood Property Trust, Miami Beach, Florida, agreed last week to lend $2 billion for the 100-acre data center campus in West Jordan, Utah, outside Salt Lake City. The proposed facility will be able to provide 175 MW of continuous service according to a power deal with the local electric utility. This loan marks the second data center construction loan of more than $2 billion in 2025, following a $2.3 billion loan in January for a facility in Abilene, Texas. Until recently, nearly every data center construction loan was less than $1 billion. Data centers are getting much larger to serve AI, and data center tenants are providing commitments from big-name clients. According to analysts, the specific model is evolving very fast.

Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

4. Roche/Genentech R&D moving to Harvard Campus

RDW Index member Roche, Basel, Switzerland, and its subsidiary Genentech, South San Francisco, announced last week that they are combining their cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism R&D work and shifting it to a new center in Harvard University’s Enterprise Research Campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The research campus is explicitly located in Allston in Boston and is currently under development, with the first phase of construction expected to be completed in 2026. The site is adjacent to Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex and near Harvard Business School. Roche will be the first company to take up residence on the campus and move into a 30,000 square foot suite. The Roche Genentech Innovation Center Boston is planned to employ up to 500 researchers.

5. Merck faces patent dispute over Keytruda

A patent dispute over a microscopic enzyme threatens RDW Index member Merck & Co., Rahway, New Jersey, plans to sell a new version of Keytruda, the cancer drug that provides nearly half of Merck’s sales. Merck has been tweaking the drug to allow it to be injectable rather than being given intravenously. This is the dispute between Merck and biotech Halozyme Therapeutics, San Diego, California. Merck has asked patent regulators to reconsider certain patents given to Halozyme, saying in part that the patents were overly broad. Halozyme is saying the new Keytruda infringes on their patents.

Automotive & Manufacturing

6. ThyssenKrupp to cut 1,800 automotive technology jobs

ThyssenKrupp, Duisburg/Essen, Germany, announced last week that it plans to cut 1,800 jobs at its automotive technology business, which at the end of 2024 employed about 31,600 workers, with about 4,000 working in R&D positions. Specific data on R&D positions was not released. The company’s R&D budget increased by about 12% in 2024 from 2023. The automotive group also said it plans a hiring freeze, fewer investments (including R&D), and efforts to optimize inventory. Most European automakers have announced extensive restructurings in recent months, and the recent U.S. tariff announcements have created added uncertainty for the automakers.

Additional Developments

7. Virginia Tech opens Innovation Campus

Last week, Governor Glenn Youngkin and Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Virginia Tech, Blacksburg’s Innovation Campus in Alexandria. The politicians noted that funding for vital national security-related R&D needed to be maintained at this campus.

8. AI-enabled bots help detect wildfires

AI-enabled bots are now used in fire-prone western states to spot new fires and thus quickly notify fire response teams. Based at the University of California, San Diego, the ALERTCalifornia camera network has over 1,150 cameras in nearly every fire-prone region statewide. The bots have detected over 1,200 confirmed fires, beating 911 callers more than 30% of the time, with particular usefulness at night.

The R&D World Index

R&D World’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in R&D. The top 25 industrial R&D spenders in 2020 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2020 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (10 companies), automotive (6 companies), and ICT (9 companies), which invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spending in the world by government, industries, and academia combined, according to R&D World’s 2021 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D World Index are tabulated from NASDAQ, NYSE, and OTC common stock prices for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the online publication of the R&D World Index.