Eli Lilly facility [Adobe Stock]
Outside the market swoon, action was brisk. Lilly formally launched its $13 billion LEAP district in Lebanon, Indiana, combining research, process development and active-ingredient production on one campus. IBM chief Arvind Krishna urged Congress to boost federal AI funding, warning that public support is scraping historic lows as a share of GDP. Stratolaunch’s Talon-A demonstrator topped Mach 5 in a fully autonomous flight, another step toward routine reusable hypersonic testing. Together, the moves show how corporate ambition and policy friction can collide with short-term market jitters.
Corporate Actions & Life Sciences
1. Lilly breaks ground on massive R&D and manufacturing district
RDW Index member Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, Indiana, announced last week that it had broken ground on one of the first major projects for its LEAP (Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace) district in Lebanon, Indiana. Lilly plans to invest more than $13 billion in this district with manufacturing sites and a medicine foundry. The district is designed to integrate research, process development and manufacturing into one location. The site is located in Boone County, near Indianapolis and Purdue University along Interstate I-65. Lilly says its investment is the largest single investment in active pharmaceutical ingredients production in U.S. history.
2. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to cut 5% of workforce
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Austin, Texas, announced last week that it will cut about 500 jobs or 5% of its global workforce as part of a plan to improve efficiencies in its business. The company intends to cut positions in some areas of the company while continuing to hire customer-facing and product engineering roles. The changes are being made to allow the company to move faster and operate more efficiently.
3. Atlas Holdings closes $6.45 billion turnaround fund
Atlas Holdings, Greenwich, Connecticut, said it wrapped up fundraising for Atlas Capital Resources V at its hard cap of $6.45 billion—more than double the $3.1 billion gathered for its 2021 predecessor. The private-equity firm expanded its limited-partner roster outside North America, lining up investors from Japan, other parts of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe. Backers include the New Mexico State Investment Council and the Kern County (Calif.) Employees’ Retirement Association. Atlas says the new pool will target underperforming industrial businesses in need of operational fixes.
Government, Policy & Global Trade
The IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer
4. IBM CEO calls for increased federal AI R&D funding
Arvind Krishna, the CEO of RDW Index member IBM, Armonk, New York, commented last week that he believes federal R&D funding for artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies should be unequivocally increased and not decreased. Krishna cited a recent directive from the federal office for AI research from the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships for making steep budget reductions in these areas along with staffers working in these areas that are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Leaders of these areas warn that funding reductions could hobble America’s leadership in AI where federal funding currently yields research returns of 25% to 40%, comparing favorably to the 15% to 27% returns achieved by top quartile venture capital funds. Krishna said that federal funding is happening at close to historic lows in terms of percentage of GDP (gross domestic product). More federal funding in R&D has a positive effect on the economy, on economic growth and the competitiveness of the U.S., which is essential for the future. During the first quarter, fifteen of IBM’s federal contracts were canceled, amounting to $100 million in future payments.
[Images: Adobe Stock]
5. China announces crackdown on critical mineral smuggling
China announced last week a crackdown on the smuggling of critical minerals following a meeting in Shenzhen, China. The country pledged to step up the enforcement of export controls on strategic mineral resources. This includes gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten and medium and heavy rare earths. China currently dominates the global supply of many critical minerals and holds a near monopoly on the rare earths industry, serving as the global miner, refiner and producer of rare earth magnets, essential components in a range of military and civilian technologies, including electric vehicles. The U.S. has taken steps to reduce its reliance on these Chinese minerals as retaliation against U.S. trade restrictions. Meaningful progress, however, has been relatively slow.
6. Greenland aligns with Denmark following mineral resource pressures
Recent aspirations by the Trump administration for Greenland and its mineral resources have pushed the 56,000 mostly Inuit inhabitants of the self-ruled country closer to its historic partner Denmark, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal. Denmark has renewed its military commitment to the island with growing interest in the Danish parliament.
Technology & Aerospace Innovation
7. Stratolaunch completes successful hypersonic test flights
Department of Defense supplier Stratolaunch, Mojave, California, announced last week that it had completed successful test flights of a reusable hypersonic-rocket powered aircraft. The craft, Talon-A, is powered by liquid rocket engines from Ursa Major, Colorado. The fully autonomous flights exceeded five times the speed of sound—the generally accepted designation of hypersonic speed.
Automotive & Manufacturing
8. Toyota projects profit drop citing tariff uncertainty and costs
RDW Index member Toyota Motor, Tokyo, Japan, reported weaker quarterly earnings last week and projected a drop in profit for the new fiscal year, expecting Trump’s tariffs and higher material costs to cut into its bottom line. The company said the tariffs could impact its income by about $1.25 billion but stated that exact data was difficult to ascertain.
9. Volkswagen recalls electric van over U.S. seat belt regulations
RDW Index member Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg, Germany, announced a recall of 5,600 units of its electric van (built between September 2024 and February 2025) in the U.S. The recall is due to the rear seats being wide enough for three people but equipped with only two seat belts, not meeting U.S. regulations.
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) that invested a cumulative total of nearly $260 billion in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent 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.
