Automotive

Despite another solid national jobs report in December 2024—256,000 new payroll jobs and a steady 4.1% unemployment rate—companies in research-intensive fields have continued to trim their workforces in early 2025. While the broader economy shows gains in health care and retail, our tracking indicates that biotech, advanced software, and other R&D-driven sectors are strategically realigning.…

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Advent Technologies collaborated to develop Ion Pair membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty vehicles. This technology aims to improve fuel cell performance, rated power, and durability. As part of the collaboration, Advent Technologies licensed patents from LANL and established a fuel cell research, development, and manufacturing facility…

Recent advancements in the semiconductor and automotive sectors indicate a growing reliance on advanced technologies to meet the evolving needs of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Honda Motor Co. and Renesas Electronics Corporation, an embedded semiconductor provider, have announced a partnership at CES 2025 to develop high-performance System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions for future vehicles. Meanwhile, chiplet technology is…

The automotive industry faces a challenge in balancing the need for fuel-efficient lightweight materials to improve the range of electric vehicles with solid and safe vehicles to protect passengers. Aluminum-silicon-coated press-hardened steels (PHS) are a promising solution, but these materials pose a unique challenge in laser welding. The presence of the Al-Si coating often leads…

For many workers, it pays to have a job in an R&D or STEM-heavy field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts 10.4% growth in STEM jobs through 2033, more than double the overall employment growth rate of 4%. However, the technology sector has experienced significant restructuring in 2024, with approximately 150,000 job cuts across more…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending December 27, 2024, closed at 3,890.59, rising 1.77% (or 67.68 basis points). Automotive stocks, in particular, drove the uptick, with Honda surging by 20.39% after announcing a merger plan with Nissan. Meanwhile, tech giants showed mixed results, as IBM slid slightly (-0.26%) and Microsoft dropped -1.38%.…

Volkswagen AG, a member of the R&D World Index, announced a significant workforce reduction last week, agreeing with its labor union to cut over 35,000 jobs and billions of dollars in costs, concluding three months of intense negotiations and narrowly avoiding factory closures in Germany. In other news, Merck & Co. invested strategically in Chinese…

As 2024 nears its end, global R&D-driven industries are navigating a mix of policy shifts, strategic realignments, and accelerating innovation. A proposed policy change could transform how U.S. companies expense their R&D investments, while manufacturing floors are seeing surging AI integration with over a third of companies successfully deploying the technology. In automotive, GM is…

Lithium-ion battery packs experienced the most significant price drop in seven years. A promising new material could help batteries achieve over 20,000 charge and discharge cycles before reaching the 80% capacity threshold, maximizing their value. Two new battery technologies could replace lithium-ion, and the Biden administration significantly boosted battery production and charging infrastructure with a…

Each year, the top 2,500 or so international R&D spenders collectively invest more than $1 trillion in R&D. The roster of R&D heavyweights is shaping up to look broadly similar to prior years, but NVIDIA is poised to crack into the top 15 given its recent AI-driven growth. If anything, NVIDIA’s ascent into the ranks…

While some R&D sectors declined, others expanded. GM sold an EV battery plant and is the second biggest automaker withdrawing from China. At the same time, Nvidia expanded in Vietnam, Amazon built an AI-based supercomputer, and OpenAI joined Anduril to boost the U.S. military’s drone technology. The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending…

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) say they have developed a magnetic 3D printing system for motor fabrication that eliminates the need for traditional molds. While the team claims successful performance validation, the results to date are only shared in a press release, which notes the development of an “all-encompassing technological…

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…

Industrial and commercial sectors often measure innovation by market capitalization and R&D spending, but these metrics fail to capture the full picture. Tech companies dominate market headlines with AI product launches and chip releases — and our own ranking of most innovative firms of 2024. In addition, tech firms currently hold the top market cap…

In many respects, 2024 was a year of building upon the foundations laid by previous technological and scientific advances. While AI continued to evolve at a rapid clip, progress was in many ways more incremental than last year when GPT-4 redefined expectations for genAI. But AI continues to make definable improvements across a range of…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending November 1, 2024, closed at 3,855.65 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -2.70% (or -107.16 basis points). Eight RDWI members gained value last week from 0.16% (Alibaba) to 8.36% (AbbVie). Seventeen RDWI members lost value the previous from -0.43% (Cisco) to…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 18, 2024, closed at 4.022.95 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -0.66% (or -26.77 basis points). Thirteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.21% (Pfizer) to 4.63% (Cisco).  Twelve RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.05% (Sanofi…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 11, 2024, closed at 4.049.72 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.11% (or 44.32 basis points). Fourteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.06% (Microsoft) to 5.06% (Eli Lilly & Co.). Eleven RDWI members lost value last week from…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending October 4, 2024, closed at 4.005.40 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 0.62% (or 24.71 basis points). Eight RDWI members gained value last week from 1.07% (Eli Lilly & Co.) to 6.71% (Alibaba).  Seventeen RDWI members lost value the previous week…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 20, 2024, closed at 4,006.95 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.11% (or 82.94 basis points). Twenty-one RDWI members gained value last week from 0.14% (Astra Zeneca PLC) to 11.09% (Intel). Four RDWI members lost value the previous week from…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 13, 2024, closed at 3,924.01 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.95% (or 112.59 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.30% (Volkswagen AG) to 14.26% (Oracle). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.85%…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 6, 2024, closed at 3,811.42 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -3.99% (or -158.42 basis points). Two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.37% (Oracle) to 2.61% (Sanofi SA). Twenty-three RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.52%…

[Adobe Stock] Updated on October 20, 2024 with new details The current Biden-Harris administration and potential Republican approaches offer different visions for the future of American science. While the Biden-Harris team emphasizes investments in climate change mitigation and clean energy, conservative approaches have historically focused on deregulation and achieving energy independence through traditional energy sources.…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending August 23, 2024, closed at 3,947.43 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.78% (or 68.94 basis points). Twenty-two RDWI members gained value last week from 0.11% (Meta Platforms) to 7.23% (Ford Motor). Three RDWI members lost value the previous week from…

Remember when DeepBlue mastered chess and AlphaGo conquered the game of Go, the board game with more moves than particles in the known universe? Or what about when cars learned to drive themselves? Reinforcement learning (RL) plays an essential role in each of these examples. RL is having a significant impact on R&D across an…