R&D Market Pulse: Intel gets $8B chip boost; VW sells plant; SoftBank doubles OpenAI stake

From billion-dollar government boosts for chipmakers to a talent war brewing in the tech sector and a major automaker’s retreat from a controversial region, the R&D world saw a week of strategic shifts and high-stakes investments, pushing the R&D World Index up 2.34% for the week ending November 29, 2024. The index closed at 3,852.16 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.44% (Sanofi SA) to 6.33% (Eli Lilly & Co.). Eight RDWI members lost value last week from -0.10% (Johnson & Johnson) to -5.02% (General Motors).

Semiconductor R&D

Commerce Department releases chips awards

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced last week that it plans to award $285 million to a new semiconductor research center focused on digital twin technology with the goal of reducing the cost and time of semiconductor chip development by about a third. This research center will have a total investment of $1 billion and will be located near Research Triangle Park in North Carolina (NC). The center will be run by Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), Durham, NC. The DOC is negotiating with SRC to provide funding for the research center from the 2022 Chips and Science Act.

Intel wins almost $8B in federal funding

In a separate announcement last week, the DOC said it would provide up to $7.87 billion in grants to RDW Index member Intel Corp., Santa Clara, California, which is also part of the 2022 Chips Act. The funds will be disbursed to Intel-based on specific milestones, with the company receiving at least $1 billion in 2024. Intel plans to draw on at least $11 billion in government loans under the Chips Act but still plans to apply for related tax credits. The monies will be applied to the creation of new Intel semiconductor factories and expansion projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon. More finalized awards from the Chips Act are expected in the coming weeks, according to the DOC.

Automotive R&D

Volkswagen sells China plant

RDW Index member Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg, Germany, announced last week that it has sold a car plant in China’s Xinjiang province as part of a broader strategic realignment of its business in China. VW’s Urumqi site is currently owned by a joint venture between VW and local partner SAIC Motor. VW’s Chinese joint ventures have been losing market share as Chinese consumers flock to electric vehicles made by local Chinese brands such as BYD. VW also said it would sell its Turpan test track in the Xinjiang region, as well as a second track near Shanghai. The SAIC joint venture is selling the assets to Shanghai Motor Vehicle Inspection Center, a subsidiary of state-owned infrastructure firm Shanghai Lingang Economic Development. Following closure of this deal, the VW SAIC joint venture will still have four remaining sites, none of which are in Xinjiang. This site has recently been involved in human-rights issues and discussions.

Rivian secures government loan

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Rivian Automotive, Irvine, California, announced last week that it had received conditional approval for a U.S. government loan of up to $6.6 billion to boost its production capability. The commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program includes $6 billion in principal and approximately $600 million in capitalized interest. The funds are expected to support the construction of its EV plant in Georgia and the production of more midsized vehicles. This announcement follows the company’s recent collaboration with Volkswagen on a $5.8 billion technology partnership announced in November. Rivian invests approximately $2 billion annually in R&D.

AI R&D

SoftBank doubles OpenAI investment

SoftBank Group, Tokyo, Japan, announced last week that it is doubling its investment in OpenAI, San Francisco, California, by offering a $1.5 billion buyback of OpenAI shares from employees of the startup behind ChatGPT. SoftBank has started investing more aggressively in recent months after a yearlong defensive strategy, as tech stocks have climbed due to artificial intelligence (AI) enthusiasm and the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cuts.

Technology R&D

Zeiss faces employee poaching

Executives at Zeiss SMT, Oberkochen, Germany—a manufacturer of optical equipment for manufacturing state-of-the-art semiconductor devices—received troubling news recently as their employees received LinkedIn messages, emails, and calls from Huawei Technologies, Shenzhen, China, offering them up to three times their salaries to join the Chinese company. These practices are frightening U.S. and European companies who are looking into ways to police the practice, rather than lose experienced employees and hence technologies as well.

Roche acquires Poseida Therapeutics

RDW Index member Roche, Basel, Switzerland, announced last week that it agreed to buy Poseida Therapeutics, San Diego, California, for $1.5 billion. The deal allows Roche to bring in-house its current partner with the aim of developing cell therapies in oncology, immunology, and neurology. The move is part of Roche’s efforts to replenish its drug pipeline and drive sales growth toward the end of the decade. The two companies have been working together since 2022 to develop CAR-T cell therapeutics for patients with hematological malignancies.

Novonix expands in the U.S.

Novonix, Brisbane, Australia, announced last week that it is looking at funding options to build a new synthetic graphite plant in the southeast U.S. after winning a supply deal with Volkswagen’s battery business. VW is its third customer for the ingredient in batteries that power EVs and store renewable energy. The company expects that battery makers will reduce their reliance on China for materials essential for the energy transition. Most lithium batteries use synthetic graphite, the majority of which is produced in China from a petroleum byproduct.

The R&D World Index

Weekly Market Summary

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.

 

Company	Ticker	Exchange	2020 R&D Billions $	11/22/24	11/29/24	11/22/24 to 11/29/24	1/1/22 to 11/29/24
Alphabet/Google	GOOGL	NASDAQ	27.30	166.57	170.49	2.35%	17.70%
Microsoft	MSFT	NASDAQ	17.20	417	423.46	1.55%	25.91%
Volkswagen AG	VWAGY	OTC	17.26	8.78	8.75	-0.34%	-70.03%
Apple	AAPL	NASDAQ	18.67	229.87	237.33	3.25%	33.65%
Facebook/Meta	META	NASDAQ	13.87	559.14	574.32	2.71%	70.75%
Intel	INTC	NASDAQ	14.50	24.50	24.05	-1.84%	-53.30%
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	NYSE	13.75	155.17	155.01	-0.10%	-9.39%
Roche Holdings AG	RHHBY	OTC	14.14	35.44	36.24	2.26%	-29.89%
Merck & Co.	MRK	NYSE	11.38	99.18	101.64	2.48%	32.62%
Novartis	NVS	NYSE	9.39	104.28	105.77	1.43%	20.92%
Toyota	TM	NYSE	10.72	174.40	170.63	-2.16%	-7.92%
Pfizer	PFE	NYSE	8.34	25.65	26.21	2.18%	-55.61%
Alibaba	BABA	NYSE	6.01	83.13	87.37	5.10%	-26.45%
GM	GM	NYSE	6.73	58.53	55.59	-5.02%	-5.18%
Honda	HMC	NYSE	8.81	26.66	25.90	-2.85%	-8.96%
Ford	F	NYSE	9.34	11.18	11.13	-0.45%	-46.41%
AbbVie	ABBV	NYSE	13.95	176.95	182.93	3.38%	35.10%
Sanofi SA	SNY	NYSE	7.75	48.28	48.49	0.44%	-3.21%
Cisco	CSCO	NASDAQ	6.33	58.55	59.21	1.13%	-6.56%
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	NYSE	7.13	58.87	59.22	0.59%	-5.02%
Astra Zeneca PLC	AZN	NYSE	6.06	65.63	67.62	3.03%	16.08%
IBM	IBM	NYSE	5.37	222.97	227.41	1.99%	70.14%
Oracle	ORCL	NYSE	6.93	192.29	184.84	-3.87%	111.95%
Eli Lilly & Co.	LLY	NYSE	8.61	748.01	795.35	6.33%	187.94%
Stellantis NV	STLA	NYSE	5.31	13.05	13.20	1.15%	-32.45%
Total			269.522	3764.08	3852.16	2.34%	36.61%
ICT				1954.02	1988.48	1.76%	37.17%
Automotive				292.60	285.20	-2.53%	-16.58%
Biopharmaceutical				1517.46	1578.48	4.02%	53.51%