While a massive underwater power cable promises to bring renewable energy from Morocco to the UK, high above the streets of Guangzhou, China, another futuristic vision is taking flight: flying cars.
These ambitious projects underscore a global surge in research and development, as evidenced by the latest R&D World Index (RDWI). The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending July 5, 2024, closed at 3,920.01 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.59% (or 98.93 basis points). Nineteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.13% (General Motors) to 7.46% (Apple). Six RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.83% (Astra Zeneca) to -4.50% (Bristol-Myers Squibb).
From solar power in France to Motorola’s Irish expansion
French photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing startup Carbon announced plans last week for its R&D and training facility in Istres on the south coast of France. Its “CARBON Lab” will receive a $36 million investment to develop and rehabilitate several unused industrial buildings near its proposed gigafactory in Fos-sur-Mer, which the company expects to commission in late 2026. Carbon expects to invest 3% of its annual turnover in R&D (approximately $50 million) in cell and module production and training and employment initiatives. The company aims to bring online 5 GW of cell and 3.5 GW of module manufacturing capacity to the European solar sector, expanding the European PV manufacturing sector. This effort is supported by new regulations from the European Union’s (EU’s) Net Zero Industries Act which looks to offset China’s solar manufacturing efforts.
Consumer goods company Reckitt, Slough, U.K., announced last week that it will build a global R&D center in Shanghai, China. The new center aims to offer Chinese consumers more locally researched and developed innovative products through its operations by June 2026. The new 86,000 ft2 R&D facility will be located in Shanghai’s Minhang district and become one of Reckitt’s nine global R&D centers of excellence. About 95% of Reckitt’s products are designed for Chinese consumers and 80% are produced in China, which the company hopes to increase with the opening of its new R&D center. Cutting-edge digital systems and AI-enabled technologies will support the facility.Motorola Solution, Chicago, announced last week that it is opening a new R&D Center in Cork, Ireland (pictured above), which is expected to generate 200 highly skilled jobs. The facility will be focused on designing software for the company’s land mobile radio (LMR) portfolio, with plans for expansion across other future technologies. The company’s $12 billion investment in R&D over the past decade is centered on safety and security with LMR representing a foundational core technology. The company has more than 13,000 LMR global networks, designed to work in the most extreme environments.
Company | Ticker | Exchange | 2020 R&D billion$ | 6/28/24 | 7/5/24 | 6/28/24 to 7/5/24 | 1/1/22 to 7/5/24 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 27.303 | 183.42 | 190.60 | 3.91% | 31.58% |
Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 17.198 | 446.95 | 467.56 | 4.61% | 39.02% |
Volkswagen | VWAGY | OTC | 17.259 | 11.92 | 12.12 | 1.68% | -58.49% |
Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 18.667 | 210.62 | 226.34 | 7.46% | 27.47% |
Meta Platforms | META | NASDAQ | 13.874 | 504.22 | 539.91 | 7.08% | 60.52% |
Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 14.503 | 31.97 | 32.02 | 3.39% | -37.83% |
Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 13.750 | 146.16 | 146.48 | 0.90% | -14.37% |
Roche | RHHBY | OTC | 14.143 | 34.67 | 34.03 | -1.85% | -34.17% |
Merck | MRK | NYSE | 11.381 | 123.80 | 126.45 | 2.14% | 64.99% |
Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 9.387 | 106.46 | 108.13 | 1.57% | 23.62% |
Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10.724 | 204.97 | 206.45 | .72% | 11.41% |
Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 8.336 | 27.98 | 28.05 | 0.25% | -52.50% |
Alibaba | BABA | NYSE | 6.006 | 72.00 | 74.52 | 3.50% | -37.27% |
General Motors | GM | NYSE | 6.727 | 46.46 | 46.52 | 0.13% | -20.66% |
Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8.806 | 32.24 | 32.45 | 0.65% | 14.06% |
Ford | F | NYSE | 9.340 | 12.54 | 12.84 | 2.39% | -38.18% |
AbbVie | ABBV | NYSE | 13.949 | 170.77 | 167.25 | -2.06% | 23.52% |
Sanofi | SNY | NYSE | 7.750 | 48.52 | 49.66 | 2.35% | -0.88% |
Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6.331 | 47.51 | 46.65 | -1.81% | -26.38% |
Bristol Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 7.130 | 41.93 | 39.66 | -4.50% | -36.39% |
AstraZeneca | AZN | NYSE | 6.056 | 77.99 | 77.34 | -0.83% | 32.77% |
IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5.368 | 172.95 | 176.02 | 1.78% | 31.69% |
Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6.928 | 141.20 | 144.83 | 2.57% | 66.07% |
Eli Lilly | LLY | NYSE | 8.606 | 905.38 | 914.57 | 1.02% | 231.10% |
Stellantis | STLA | NYSE | 5.309 | 19.85 | 19.56 | -1.46% | 0.10% |
XPRNG AEROHT’s flying cars could take off in China
During last week’s Conference on High-Quality Development of Low Altitude Economy in Guangzhou, China, the Guangzhou Development District and XPRNG AEROHT signed a Flying Car Project Investment Cooperation Agreement which will provide support to XPENG AEROHT in terms of land use, financing, and application scenarios. The partnership aims to jointly promote the R&D, mass production, and application of flying cars. Through the collaboration, a flying car R&D, intelligent manufacturing, and sales center will be established in Guangzhou. Pre-sales of the collaboration’s modular flying car will start in late 2024. The vehicle uses distributed electric propulsion, offers manual and automatic driving modes, and can carry two people.
One of the world’s largest undersea power cable proposed
The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, an ambitious plan to build a 2,500-mile subsea power line connecting vast wind and solar farms in Morocco to the UK, has made significant progress recently. This project has made significant progress recently, attracting investments from major companies like Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), TotalEnergies, and Octopus Energy. Most recently, in April 2024, GE Vernova and African Finance Corporation (AFC) invested in the project.
The plan involves generating 11.5GW of zero-carbon electricity in Morocco’s Guelmim Oued Noun region and delivering 3.6GW of reliable energy to the UK for an average of 19+ hours a day. The project includes four HVDC sub-sea cables and a 22.5GWh/5GW battery storage facility in Morocco. If completed, it would be one of the world’s longest undersea power cables and could supply up to 8% of the UK’s electricity consumption. The UK government has declared it a project of “national significance,” and it’s expected to be operational within a decade, potentially powering more than 7 million British homes with renewable energy.
R&D World Index Week Ending July 5, 2024 – Sectors
Category | 6/28/24 | 7/05/24 | 6/28/24 to 7/5/24 | 1/1/22 to 7/5/24 |
---|---|---|---|---|
ICT | 1809.84 | 1898.45 | 4.90% | 30.96% |
Automotive | 327.98 | 329.94 | 0.60% | -3.50% |
Biopharmaceutical | 1683.26 | 1691.62 | 0.50% | 64.52% |
Battery makers and miners forge partnerships to secure lithium supply
Lithium producer Liontown Resources, West Perth, Australia, and battery maker LG Energy Solution, Seoul, South Korea announced last week that they are jointly considering the development of a refinery for producing battery-grade lithium. This collaboration is part of an expanded partnership which includes a $250 million investment by LG in Liontown and an expanded supply deal for lithium-rich spodumene concentrate from Liontown’s Kathleen Valley project. Liontown is developing one of the world’s largest lithium deposits and is expected to be in production by the end of this month. Liontown is also partnering with Japan’s Sumitomo to explore options for producing battery-grade lithium in Japan.
Private equity firm Carlyle Group, Washington, D.C. announced last week that it is in talks to acquire the kidney-care spinoff Vantive from Baxter International, Deerfield, Illinois, for more than $4 billion, including debt. The two parties entered negotiations in June 2024 and a deal could be announced as soon as this month. Baxter’s kidney-care company had about $4.5 billion in revenue in 2023 with more than 22,000 employees.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell commented last week that he was pleased with how inflation had resumed its downward trend. Inflation fell to 2.6% in May, down from 4.0% in May 2023, but still above the Fed’s 2.0% target. Fed officials still say they can take their time to cut interest rates as long as the labor market stays healthy. Payroll growth has been solid so far this year and there are signs that consumer spending is slowing in line with what officials had anticipated.
Last week, the EU confirmed plans to impose additional tariffs on electric vehicles made in China. New import fees began last week and will continue for at least four months. The EU said that China unfairly subsidizes EV companies, including European carmakers who import EVs to Europe, which undercuts competition. Subsidies allow China to sell EVs in Europe for less than European-made EVs. European EV makers include VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis. European car makers are against the tariffs for fear of a trade war.
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.
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