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.
The construction of TSMC’s Arizona fab. [Image courtesy of TSMC]
2. UK not pursuing Microsoft-OpenAI investigation
[Image courtesy of Adobe Stock]
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
[Image courtesy of Roche]
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
[Image courtesy of Thyssenkrupp]
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.
[Credit: ALERTCalifornia | UC San Diego]
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.
