U.S. Technology leadership depends upon a range of research and development (R&D) activities.
R&D is critical to the semiconductor industry鈥檚 virtuous cycle of innovation that supports U.S. technology leadership. Innovations yield superior technologies that鈥攚hen used in commercial production鈥攑rovide the funds needed to make massive investments in future R&D. To apply basic research, U.S. headquartered semiconductor firms invested $62.7 billion into R&D in 2024.
To be commercially useful, an innovation must traverse five phases鈥攕ee figure above. In each successive phase of technology maturation, a large portfolio of initial bets are needed to achieve an innovation that impacts volume production.
