Tech Outspends Pharma in Record Research Spend
Big Tech has surpassed Big Pharma in research and development (R&D) spending. According to R&D World, nine tech companies spent around $283 billion on R&D in 2025, more than twice the $124.7 billion spent by pharma's top 10 companies.
Alphabet leads in R&D spending at $61.1 billion, followed closely by Meta with $57.4 billion. Together, the two spent roughly $118.5 billion, which is 7.5 times Merck's $15.8 billion and 8.9 times Eli Lilly's $13.3 billion.
NVIDIA raised its R&D spending by 43% to $18.5 billion in its fiscal year ended January 25, 2026, exceeding both Merck and Lilly's spending in 2025. OpenAI spent around $19 billion on R&D while generating only $13 billion in revenue.
Meanwhile, drugmakers are increasingly paying for access to what Big Tech builds, with the total value of pharma AI partnerships jumping 120% from 2024 to 2025, according to GlobalData figures.