Spending more than a fifth of revenue on research
118 companies with revenue above $500m spend more than 20% of it on research and development.
Accounting treats research as an expense in the year it happens, which means a company investing heavily in its future looks less profitable than one harvesting its past. For the companies on this list that distortion is large enough to dominate the income statement.
Semiconductors and biotechnology account for most of the list, for opposite reasons. A chip designer must fund the next process node continuously or exit the business. A drug developer is funding a portfolio of attempts, most of which will fail, in the hope that one does not.
The figure that matters alongside this one is gross margin. High R&D with high gross margin describes a company whose products, once developed, are cheap to sell -- the research is an investment. High R&D with thin gross margin describes a company that must keep spending merely to stay level.
What this is usually called
R&D intensity is the standard name for research spending as a share of revenue. In filings the line is research and development expense; some companies split it into research, development and engineering, and software firms may capitalise part of it instead of expensing it, which lowers the ratio without lowering the spending. Under US GAAP research is expensed as incurred, which is why heavy investment reads as weak profitability.
The question, as a query
The list below is what this returns today. It is written in the screener's own syntax, so it can be copied, loosened or tightened without leaving the site.
rd_ratio > 20% AND revenue > 500m| Company | Revenue | Net income | Gross margin | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| METAMeta Platforms, Inc. | $200.97B | $60.46B | 82.0% | $46.11B |
| MRKMerck & Co., Inc. | $65.01B | $18.25B | 74.8% | $12.36B |
| INTCINTEL CORP | $52.85B | -$267.00M | 34.8% | -$4.95B |
| BMYBRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO | $48.19B | $7.05B | 71.1% | $12.84B |
| QCOMQUALCOMM INC/DE | $44.28B | $5.54B | 55.4% | Unavailable |
| AMDADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC | $34.64B | $4.34B | 49.5% | $6.74B |
| REGNREGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. | $14.34B | $4.50B | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| NOWServiceNow, Inc. | $13.28B | $1.75B | 77.5% | $4.58B |
| PANWPalo Alto Networks Inc | $11.48B | $307.00M | 70.4% | Unavailable |
| WDAYWorkday, Inc. | $9.55B | $693.00M | Unavailable | $2.78B |
| MRVLMarvell Technology, Inc. | $8.19B | $2.67B | 51.0% | $1.40B |
| ADSKAutodesk, Inc. | $7.21B | $1.12B | 91.0% | $2.41B |
| COIN BankCoinbase Global, Inc. | $7.18B | $1.26B | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| SNPSSYNOPSYS INC | $7.05B | $1.33B | 77.0% | $1.35B |
| TEAMAtlassian Corp | $6.57B | -$53.83M | 84.8% | $1.32B |
| SNAPSnap Inc | $5.93B | -$460.49M | 55.0% | $437.19M |
| RIVNRivian Automotive, Inc. / DE | $5.39B | -$3.65B | 2.7% | -$2.49B |
| ONCBeOne Medicines Ltd. | $5.34B | $286.93M | 87.5% | $941.74M |
| INCYINCYTE CORP | $5.14B | $1.29B | 92.8% | Unavailable |
| TWLOTWILIO INC | $5.07B | $33.83M | 48.9% | Unavailable |
| RBLXRoblox Corp | $4.89B | -$1.07B | 78.1% | $1.36B |
| CRWDCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. | $4.81B | -$162.50M | 74.7% | $1.31B |
| MCHPMICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC | $4.71B | $230.00M | 57.7% | $871.00M |
| SNOWSnowflake Inc. | $4.68B | -$1.33B | 67.2% | $1.12B |
| ILMNILLUMINA, INC. | $4.34B | $850.00M | 66.1% | $931.00M |
| PINSPINTEREST, INC. | $4.22B | $416.86M | 80.1% | $1.25B |
| ALNYALNYLAM PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. | $3.71B | $313.75M | 81.8% | $465.38M |
| PEverpure, Inc. | $3.66B | $188.18M | 70.4% | $615.74M |
| DDOGDatadog, Inc. | $3.43B | $107.74M | 80.0% | $1.00B |
| ZSZscaler, Inc. | $3.35B | -$63.18M | 76.8% | $852.35M |
| BMRNBIOMARIN PHARMACEUTICAL INC | $3.22B | $348.90M | 77.7% | $724.96M |
| DOCUDOCUSIGN, INC. | $3.22B | $309.08M | 79.4% | $1.06B |
| VEEVVEEVA SYSTEMS INC | $3.20B | $908.91M | 75.5% | Unavailable |
| HUBSHUBSPOT INC | $3.13B | $45.91M | 83.8% | $707.55M |
| OKTAOkta, Inc. | $2.92B | $235.00M | 77.4% | $875.00M |
| NTNXNutanix, Inc. | $2.85B | $1.51B | 86.8% | $840.68M |
| AXONAXON ENTERPRISE, INC. | $2.78B | $124.66M | 59.7% | $75.08M |
| ZGZILLOW GROUP, INC. | $2.58B | $23.00M | 74.1% | $235.00M |
| DBXDROPBOX, INC. | $2.52B | $508.40M | 80.1% | $930.80M |
| MDBMongoDB, Inc. | $2.46B | -$71.15M | 71.7% | $500.19M |
Showing the 40 largest by revenue of 118. Open the full list in the screener.
What this does not show
R&D is what the filer tagged as research and development. Companies differ in how much engineering, product and software cost they include, so the ratio is more comparable within an industry than across.
The measures behind this
Research & development R&D / revenue Gross margin
Related findings
Citing this
SequelSEC, “Spending more than a fifth of revenue on research”, 29 September 2026. https://sequelsec.com/findings/research-above-a-fifth-of-revenue
Figures are recomputed on every view from SEC filings, so a number quoted from this page should carry the date it was read.