Samsung Electronics No. 3 globally for R&D spending

Samsung Electronics ranked third globally in terms of research and development (R&D) expenditures last year, data showed Thursday.

According to the report compiled by Ernst & Young, a global accounting firm, Samsung Electronics spent 13.1 billion euros ($15 billion) on various R&D projects in 2017.

U.S. online commerce giant Amazon topped the list with 20.1 billion euros, trailed by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, with 14.8 billion euro. Samsung’s semiconductor rival Intel came in fourth with 11.6 billion euros.

The Korean tech company said in its business report that it spent 8.7 trillion won ($7.77 billion) on R&D projects over the January-June period of 2018.

The report said the world’s top 500 players in terms of R&D expenditures spent a combined 532 billion euros for the whole of last year, up 6 percent on-year.