Last year, research and development (R&D) investment by domestic information and communication technology (ICT) corporations topped 64 trillion won, marking the highest growth rate in the past six years.
According to a survey released on the 29th by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute of Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), R&D investment by domestic ICT corporations in 2024 reached 64.6109 trillion won, up 13.8% from a year earlier. That accounts for 60.6% of the total R&D investment across all domestic industries, which stood at 106.7 trillion won.
By funding source, private and foreign funds totaled 62.4 trillion won, or 96.6%. Government and public funds came to about 2.2 trillion won. By industry, investment in information-communication-broadcasting equipment, including semiconductors, was 59.5 trillion won, accounting for 92.1% of the total, while software development and production was 4.2 trillion won.
By corporation size, investment by large corporations rose 16.3% to 53.5 trillion won, driving overall growth. Small and midsize corporations also increased 11.9% to 2.5 trillion won, but venture corporations fell 0.3% to 5.2 trillion won, the first decline since statistics began.
R&D personnel numbered 225,900, up 5,200 from a year earlier. The ICT industry accounted for nearly half of all industrial research workers. In particular, although the SW sector is smaller in investment scale, it employed 57,000 people, showing strong capacity to absorb labor.
With the spread of AI driving demand for semiconductors and high-performance computing, ICT investment is likely to continue rising for the time being. However, as investment is concentrated in major semiconductor corporations and venture R&D has contracted, the government said it will expand support for corporation-led projects and AI/SW talent development.