The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending February 10, 2023, closed at 2,465.73 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -0.49% (or -12.10 basis points) from the week ending February 3, 2023. Ten of the 25 RDWI members gained value during the past week from 0.43% (Stellantis NV) to 8.58% (Astra Zeneca PLC). Fourteen of the 25 RDWI members lost value last week from -0.41% (Pfizer) to -9.74% (Alphabet/Google). One company was unchanged for the week Roche Holdings (43.88).

RDW Index member Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Michigan, announced last week that the company plans to build a massive $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant on a 1,900-acre site in Marshall, Michigan, just east of Battle Creek. Ford is partnering with CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ningde, China) on the project. Ford will staff the facility with Ford employees, while CATL will provide intellectual support for the plant. This event is part of Ford’s overall $11 billion investment in Blue Oval City, the sprawling complex outside Memphis, Tennessee, where the company will build an electric truck, batteries, and other EVs, as well as facilities in Kentucky that will do similar work. Ford broke ground on Blue Oval City in the fall of 2022. It is expected to open in 2025.

RDW Index member General Motors, Detroit, and semiconductor chip maker Global Foundries Inc., Malta, New York, announced last week that the two companies have established a long-term agreement to supply semiconductors for GM. Global will manufacture the devices for GM’s suppliers at its facility in upstate New York. General Motors also announced last week that it had taken a small stake in Brazilian mining company Vale SA, Rio de Janeiro. While Vale’s primary business is on the mining of primary metals, like iron ore, they also process nickel and other metals crucial to the building of EV batteries. The GM-Vale sale is in the early stages.

Tesla, Austin, Texas, announced last week that it has started the development of pouch batteries for its EVs instead of the conventional cylindrical devices it has used up until now for its vehicles. Tesla is promoting the development of pouch batteries and bringing in-house battery equipment in 1Q 2023. This new equipment is primarily dedicated for R&D use and not production use. Their application and where the pouch devices will be used were not announced. Pouch batteries have the advantage over cylindrical products in that they can be formed into various shapes.

Over the last month, China has rolled out a series of policy steps to encourage foreign investment in R&D in China. A document released on January 18 by China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) outlined 16 policy measures to strengthen support for foreign-funded R&D centers. The key measures in this report encourage the centers to conduct fundamental research, allowing them to use reports and data collected by China’s national research programs and major equipment. They also support the strengthening of infrastructure and operational funding. According to MoST the number of researchers employed at foreign-funded R&D centers grew from 595,000 in 2012 to 716,000 in 2021.

RDW Index member Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, announced last week that it had integrated the technology behind its AI (artificial intelligence)-based viral chatbox ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. The success of the ChatGPT from its OpenAI has put Microsoft at the forefront of what some analysts see as the next wave of technological innovation (or generative AI).

It was noted last week that Moscow, Russia, and Tehran, Iran, are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine. As part of their emerging military alliance, high-level Iranian delegates flew to Russia in early January to visit the site for the planned factory and work out details to get the project up and running.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reported last week that employers added 517,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest since 1969. The DOL also revised previous months’ reported job gains as significantly higher, suggesting that the U.S. economy entered 2023 with more momentum than previously thought. This data is a harbinger of increased interest rate increases beyond what the federal reserve had expected. Interest rates are now expected to increase to at least 5.25% or more by June.

Volvo Car AB, Gothenburg, Sweden, announced last week that it is in advanced talks with some of the largest mining companies, including over potential stakes in lithium mining or processing operations. Volvo is majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Analysts have noted that the mining and processing capacity at present doesn’t support the expected volume of metals needed to support future EV automotive demands.

Analysts noted last week that Chinese companies are developing conversational AI tools to compete with the likes of Microsoft’s OpenAI ChatGPT for their online search requirements. China’s search giant company Baidu announced last week that it will unveil its own conversational AI tool called Ernie Bot after completing internal testing in March. Alibaba, China’s e-commerce leader, also noted that it is testing its own ChatGPT-style tool.

 

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 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