Samsung world's No. 3 investor in chip R&D in 2015

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. ranked third among global chipmakers in terms of investment in research and development (R&D) in 2015 despite a near 5 percent on-year increase, data showed Friday.

The South Korean tech giant spent US$3.12 billion on semiconductor R&D in 2015, compared with $2.97 billion a year earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker IC Insights showed.

Its sales-to-R&D ratio came to 7.5 percent last year, down 0.3 percentage points on-year.

U.S. industry giant Intel Corp. was the biggest investor with $12.1 billion, which accounted for 24 percent of its sales for 2015.

U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. followed with an investment of $3.7 billion with its sales-to-R&D ratio reaching 23.1 percent in 2015.

Broadcom Corp. came in fourth with $2.1 billion for 2015 and posted a comparable ratio of 25 percent.

South Korea's No. 2 player SK hynix Inc. was the world's No. 9 investor with $1.42 billion, up three notches from a year earlier. Its sales-to-R&D ratio came to 8.4 percent.

The total R&D investment made by the world's top 10 chipmakers edged up 2 percent on-year to reach $30.7 billion in 2015, marking sluggish growth amid a prolonged global economic slump and falling chip sales.

colin@yna.co.kr
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