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…

Yes, questions remain about whether AI chipmaker NVIDIA can maintain its momentum in 2025. NVIDIA’s upcoming Blackwell AI chips have encountered thermal problems when integrated into server racks designed to house up to 72 units. Despite these recent technical hurdles, the company remains an innovation juggernaut. 1. Why NVIDIA is the R&D leader of 2024…

The R&D World Index plummeted last week, dragged down by significant losses across most of its constituents, despite a surge in AI chip demand and major R&D investments signaling continued industry shifts. The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending November 15, 2024, closed at 3,708.90 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The…

From AMD cutting 4% of its workers as it continues an AI push to LAMs, AI continues to shake up the technology landscape. While a Reuters report suggests that genAI progress may be cooling, several prominent figures such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have refuted it. OpenAI explores novel…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for hardware companies. For a handful of hardware companies, 2024 was a tough year. Intel, Dell, AMD, IBM jointly cut more than 23,000 jobs this year. Intel alone slashed 15,000 positions as it targeted $10 billion in cost savings by 2025. The PC…

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…

Alphawave Semi has been awarded a research grant from the UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), to remove networking bottlenecks that are limiting AI’s growth. Data from Meta indicates that AI processors can be idle roughly two-fifths of the time waiting for data from the network, wasting costly resources. ARIA is driving a shift toward…

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…

An analysis of 45 years of R&D 100 Awards reveals a clear leader: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), with more than two hundred winning products. National labs dominate the top ranks, demonstrating the staying power of consistent government investment in R&D. All of the top 10 organizations since 2010 are federally-backed entities. ORNL Frequently featured…

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 27, 2024, closed at 3,980.69 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -0.66% (or -26.26 basis points). Thirteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.03% (Sanofi SA) to 20.30% (Alibaba). Twelve RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.21%…

Physicists at MIT have directly imaged the frictionless flow of atoms along the edges of a material, confirming long-held theories about electron behavior in the quantum Hall effect. By recreating the effect’s conditions with ultracold atoms, the team observed these particles effortlessly navigating around obstacles, defying everyday experience with friction. In the everyday world, friction is…

A team of scientists at the University of Adelaide has developed a novel polarization multiplexer for 6G communications. The researchers note that they succeeded in testing the ultra-wideband integrated terahertz polarization (de)multiplexer on a substrateless silicon base in the sub-terahertz J-band (220-330 GHz). The device shows significant potential for use in 6G and future communication…

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…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) was up 2.91% with Cisco leading at 8.78%, in spite of its lay-off announcement. In the week ending August 16, the index closed at 3878.49 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 2.91% (or 109.53 basis points). Twenty-one RDWI members gained value last week from 0.95%…

A new class of nanoscale materials that act like microscopic mood rings, changing color with temperature, could help measure temperature at the tiniest scales, with potential applications in electronics, biology, and beyond. Published in Advanced Materials, this research from scientists at the University of California, Irvine involves a one-dimensional nanoscale material known as indium selenium…

A $600,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to Penn State’s Silicon Carbide Innovation Alliance (SCIA) aims to address the significant shortage of U.S.-based skilled workers in the rapidly growing semiconductor industry. This grant, combined with matching funds from industry partners and the university, totals more than $1.4 million over three years to support…

Berkeley-based advanced materials startup Thintronics has secured an undisclosed Series A Extension, led by Maverick Capital and Translink Capital, to accelerate its mission of revamping insulator technology for high-performance electronics. The round, which includes strategic investments from M Ventures (Merck KGaA’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm) and TGVP (Toppan Holdings’ U.S. CVC arm), will fuel…

For six decades, the R&D 100 Awards have been a benchmark of achievement in science and technology, often referred to informally as “The Oscars of Innovation.” This year, we’re offering a new interactive experience, allowing you to explore the remarkable work of both winners and finalists across diverse fields. From advances in mechanical and material…

[Updated August 8, 2024] The global R&D map is being redrawn, caught between forces of nationalism and the undeniable pull of international collaboration. While the aftershocks of the pandemic and shifting political winds have led some nations to turn inward, the race for innovation is driving a surprising surge in cross-border investment. For instance, South…

NTT Research is playing the long game, tackling challenges that others shy away from. While many R&D labs focus on a relatively near-term ROI for research, NTT is more patient, taking a page from storied labs like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC that prioritize bigger, riskier but potentially more transformative bets. Its website declares: “Our…

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Santa Clara, California, announced last week that its data-center revenue more than doubled year over year, exceeding Wall Street analyst’s estimates. The company also raised its forecast for this year’s sale of AI chips to more than $4.5 billion, an increase of 13% from its forecast three months ago. While this…

Intel’s announcement of 15,000 layoffs is the latest in a wave of workforce reductions impacting the tech sector. Since 2020, major players like Amazon (27,000), Meta (21,000), and Microsoft (14,000) have all significantly reduced their headcounts. Amazon’s cuts have come in several waves, including 18,000 announced in January 2023. Meta’s reductions, part of CEO Mark…

OpenAI, San Francisco, announced last week that it is launching a test version of their long-awaited search engine. SearchGPT will cite news sources such as News Corp. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) and the Atlantic magazine (published by the Emerson Collective/publisher is Laurene Jobs — Steve Jobs’s widow). OpenAI has also struck partnerships with…

Silicon Valley is still where it’s at in terms of R&D. Yes, the region has cut roughly 45,000 tech jobs since 2022, but its dominance in research and development remains unchallenged, based on data from The 2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. And despite the layoffs, many tech companies have reported significant revenue growth. NVIDIA…