Invested nearly 2 trillion yuan in R&D, listed companies shoulder half of the technological innovation landscape

Securities Times Reporter Yang Xia

The financial reports of listed companies are not only a “health check” of performance but also a microscopic window into macroeconomic insights. The new and old kinetic energy conversion, industrial structure optimization, technological narratives, and other era trends are clearly reflected in the operational data and strategic layouts of listed companies. In the recently disclosed annual reports of A-share listed companies for 2025, R&D investment highlights a qualitative change in corporate innovation momentum.

R&D investment of 19.3 trillion yuan, R&D intensity of 2.64% (the proportion of R&D investment to revenue, same below), and 49% of total social R&D expenditure—opening the 2025 annual reports of listed companies, a series of dynamic numbers are not cold ledgers but the strong pulse of China’s economy, the confidence behind the technological narrative “moving forward,” and a powerful testament to the country’s vigorous development.

Listed companies shoulder nearly half of social R&D expenditure

The 2025 annual report shows that over 5,500 listed companies increased their R&D investment to 19.3 trillion yuan, setting a new high, a 2.08% increase from the previous year; R&D intensity rose to 2.64%, breaking historical records.

In the past five years, the compound growth rate of R&D investment among listed companies reached 11.41%, and in 2025, their share of total social R&D expenditure increased to 49%, meaning that listed companies have taken on nearly half of the social R&D spending, becoming the core carriers of the national innovation system.

Tian Lihui, Professor of Finance at Nankai University, told Securities Times that the R&D investment of listed companies in 2025 hit a new high, with both total and intensity remaining stable, demonstrating a qualitative change in corporate innovation momentum. This indicates that market entities are internalizing technological R&D as a fundamental survival basis. Breakthroughs in hard technology fields such as semiconductors and new energy confirm that the “R&D—industry” positive cycle has formed, becoming the core engine of economic transformation.

Chen Xin, Professor at the D Water Lake Advanced Financial Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, believes that the R&D data in 2025 show strong resilience in innovation. Although the year-on-year growth rate of 2.08% has slowed compared to previous high-growth phases, under the current circumstances, it reflects that enterprises still insist on high-intensity R&D investments when facing profitability challenges, forming a certain normalized mechanism. This directly drives the industrial structure from low-value-added assembly and processing to high-value-added technological R&D, enhancing the autonomous and controllable capacity of the industrial chain.

Continuous optimization of R&D investment structure

While the scale of R&D investment among listed companies reaches a new high, the structure is also continuously optimized, with innovation resources accelerating toward hard technology fields. The STAR Market, as a hub for hard technology, has maintained a leading R&D intensity. In 2025, R&D investment on the STAR Market reached 19.3k yuan, with a R&D intensity of 11.82%. The ChiNext and Beijing Stock Exchange are roughly on par, at 4.96% and 4.74%, respectively, while the Main Board stands at 2.25%. Among the top 20 companies by R&D intensity, nearly 80% are from the STAR Market.

In terms of sub-sectors, R&D investment in new energy, semiconductors, chips, and biopharmaceuticals ranks among the top, with leading companies such as BYD, CATL, and BeiGene each investing over 10 billion yuan in R&D, becoming the core forces driving China’s innovation economy. Tian Lihui believes that the leading R&D intensities in some industries are positive signals for the optimization of the innovation structure. High investment in “neck-breaking” fields like semiconductors and biomedicine accelerates China’s technological breakthroughs. Some sectors have shifted from followers to peers, demonstrating resource aggregation effects.

The sustained increase in R&D investment is steadily translating into growth in patent numbers. By the end of 2025, the total number of invention patents held by A-share listed companies reached 695k, with 142.6k new patents added, accounting for 14.67% of all new invention patents in society. On average, each company holds 126 invention patents. These data fully demonstrate the strong innovation output capacity of listed companies and their role as a vital force in promoting societal innovation.

STAR Market companies performed especially well in this wave of innovation, with an average of about 130 invention patents per company, showing strong innovation vitality and potential. Companies like BeiGene and Cambrian have become models of innovation-driven development with their high R&D investment ratios.

Chen Xin believes that China’s innovation R&D investment structure is undergoing deep optimization, shifting toward “targeted breakthroughs.” Semiconductors relate to “bottom-line security,” and biomedicine concerns “life and health.” The leading R&D intensities in these two sectors indicate that Chinese companies are moving away from past “borrowing” approaches, adopting market-driven mechanisms, and making real investments and efforts in foundational technologies and original drugs. Future breakthroughs are still needed in “neck-breaking” basic research, the efficiency of translating R&D results, and the deep integration of AI with traditional industries.

Forging “source innovation”

After years of high-intensity R&D investment, some tech companies have crossed the “money-burning” stage and now possess profitability and stable financial conditions. The 2025 financial data confirm this, with the profitability and cash flow quality of STAR Market companies significantly improving. The median gross profit margin of STAR Market companies reached 36.22%, about 12 percentage points higher than the entire A-share market; the median net cash flow from operating activities as a proportion of revenue increased to 11.21%, nearly 2 percentage points higher than the overall A-share market.

Specifically, industries like semiconductors, new energy, and innovative pharmaceuticals are entering a harvest season. From major technological breakthroughs to strong performance reversals, driven by innovation, these sectors have achieved qualitative leaps and become the “ballast” of China’s economic growth.

Taking the semiconductor industry as an example, driven by the explosive demand for AI computing power, companies like Cambrian have seen their performance surge. Cambrian successfully turned a profit in 2025, with continued growth in the first quarter, achieving revenue of 19.3k yuan and net profit of 189.25B yuan, with both exceeding 100% year-on-year growth. The explosive growth in the semiconductor industry results from years of high investment in China. Additionally, hot market companies such as New Easymicro, InnoSun, and Tianshu Communication also saw significant increases in 2025, with outstanding performance continuing into the first quarter of this year.

The qualitative change driven by innovation is especially evident in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since 2025, the performance of innovative drug companies has improved significantly, with many turning losses into profits and maintaining good momentum in the first quarter. BeiGene’s key products continued to expand in the first quarter, with revenue reaching 695k yuan, up 31.0% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent turned positive, reaching 142.6k yuan; Hisense announced the arrival of the “harvest period” for innovative drugs in the first quarter of 2026, earning 555 million yuan, a tenfold increase year-on-year, with revenue up 75.33%. The company stated that the sales volume of innovative drugs and the recognition of overseas licensing payments boosted current performance. Several other innovative drug companies also turned losses into profits in the first quarter. Behind these data is the leap from “following innovation” to “source innovation.”

The annual report data of A-share listed companies are the best window to observe China’s economic innovation transformation. As enterprises continue to deepen R&D and uphold innovation resolve, new productive forces are accelerating growth, continuously injecting endogenous momentum into China’s economy.