Samsung Electronics Co. retained its No. 2 spot in a global ranking for industrial research and development spending for the third consecutive year, a survey by the European Commission's Economics of Industrial Research and Innovation showed Tuesday.

According to the annual survey, 75 South Korean firms were among the world's top 2,500 companies that invested a large sum into research and development. 


A total of 837 firms based in the United States are included in the ranking, followed by 590 firms in the European Union, 356 firms in Japan, 327 firms in China and 111 firms in Taiwan.

"Global R&D is concentrated with the top 100 global R&D investors accounting for 53.1 percent of the R&D of the whole top 2,500 and the top 50 companies accounting for 40 percent," the center said in a statement posted on its website.

German automaker Volkswagen AG topped the list and Intel Corp. came third.

The top 10 firms included Alphabet Inc., the parent of Google, Microsoft Corp. and Novartis AG.

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. and Hyundai Motor Co. were ranked 48th and 83rd each.

This year's survey "shows significant worldwide rise of corporate R&D, driven by high-tech industries while revenues declined mostly due to low-tech sectors," it said. (Yonhap)