The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending May 17, 2024, closed at 3,623.91 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.69% (or 60.91 basis points).

Twenty RDWI members gained value last week from 0.23% (Cisco) to 10.62% (Alibaba). Five RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.36% (AstraZeneca PLC) to -2.02% (Bristol-Myers Squibb).

RDW Index members Honda Motor Co., Tokyo, and IBM, Armonk, New York, announced last week that they are collaborating on the R&D of next-generation computing technologies to address emerging processing, power, and design challenges for software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The areas of joint research include specialized semiconductor technologies and open and flexible software solutions. Their joint announcement stated that the application of intelligence/AI technologies is expected to accelerate widely in 2030 and beyond, creating new opportunities for developing SDVs. The vehicle features can be remotely updated, reimagining it as a smartphone or any other client device that can be updated from the cloud. Honda stated it’s teaching its engineers to use advanced IBM analytics tools, allowing engineers to uncover unexpected data patterns and identify new research areas.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Lemont, Illinois, announced last week it is constructing a new R&D facility to develop and test large-scale fuel cell systems. The facility will test fuel cell systems for transportation applications, including trucks, railroad locomotives, marine vessels, aircraft, and vehicles used in agriculture, construction, and mining. The DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will fund approximately $4 million to support these efforts. The goal is to improve the performance, durability, reliability, and efficiency of heavy-duty fuel-cell systems while also lowering the cost. The facility is expected to come online in Fall 2025. The facility can test systems ranging from 150 to 600 kW.

Bedrock Materials, a battery technology startup that originated at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, announced last week that it will locate its R&D headquarters in Chicago to take advantage of its proximity to the automotive sodium-ion technology resources at the DOE’s ANL.

Hybrid-electric airplane maker, Heart Aerospace, Gothenburg, Sweden, announced last week that it will open its R&D hub in Los Angeles. This strategic move comes as the company prepares to enter a new phase of hardware testing to develop its first regional hybrid-electric airplane, the ES-30. The company will relocate its full-scale aircraft demonstrator to the U.S. to demonstrate proof-of-concept of a new and innovative hybrid propulsion system. The company plans to display electric flights within the next year. Heart Aerospace will remain headquartered in Europe pursuing type certification in 2028. The company has already secured 250 orders for the ES-30, with options for an additional 120 airplanes and letters of intent for another 191 aircraft.

RDW Index member Intel, Santa Clara, California, announced last week that it is negotiating with asset management firm Apollo Global Management, New York City, which would supply Intel with more than $11 billion to help it build a new semiconductor plant in Ireland. Intel is already building or expanding factories in Arizona, Ohio, Ireland, and other locations to capitalize on the demand for semiconductor chips. A slowdown in Intel’s core business of supplying chips for personal computers and servers has hampered its ability to pay for these facilities.

RDW Index member Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, announced last week that it will ask its suppliers to use 100% carbon-free energy by the end of the decade after it reported a 30% rise in emissions and acknowledged that the biggest challenge in meeting its self-imposed climate goals come from building new AI infrastructures and tackling the emissions from its supply chain.

RDW Index member Google, Mountain View, California, announced last week that it will show AI-powered answers to billions of people using its search engine by the end of 2024. The move, starting last week in the U.S., strengthens the company’s embrace of generative AI. Competitors and analysts consider this rollout an indicator of the company’s confidence in this technology and its willingness to reshape how its customers interact with online information. Certain searches will now begin to answer automatically with a feature called AI overviews.

The European Commission announced last week that the Eurozone’s annual inflation rate will meet its target earlier than previously forecast. Average inflation for the Eurozone should be 2.5% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025. Growth rates for the 2025 Eurozone were lowered to 1.4% from its previous forecast of 1.5%.

OpenAI, San Francisco, announced last week that it had unveiled a less expensive version of its flagship AI system that includes a new voice assistant to make it easier to use. The cheaper model, GPT-4o can better digest images and video in addition to text and interact with people by voice in real-time. Unlike current voice assistants, users can interrupt the new voice feature while talking to it. The updated model can respond close to instantaneously. GPT-4o reflects on how OpenAI and other companies are increasingly seeking to expand their pools of users and bring in money for their generative AI technologies.

 

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) who invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars 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