How much money does humanity spend on technology and how is it distributed?

Israel and South Korea spend 5-6% of their GDP on technology, and this is the maximum figure of any country in the world. Compared to other costs, humanity does not spend that much on technology. And yet every 18 months the speed of technology development doubles. We figure out how much money people spend on technology, in which areas they invest the most, and which, as a result, grow the fastest.

Volume of the technology market and investments in key areas

Technology industry average growing at a rate of 5-6% per year. The largest market is expected to be the United States – in 2022 they accounted for 33% of the total volume or $1.79 trillion. The United States has high net employment in the technology sector – 8% of the total labor force. There are also many scientific and technological centers in the States, only one NASA will consistently receive more than $20 billion per year.

Global technology spending in 2022 reached $3.54 trillion. For 2023, spending was projected at $3.950 trillion. At the same time, the technology market is a very broad concept; it is difficult to calculate the movement of money in it. It includes, for example, telecommunications services and computer equipment.

So, according to one of the statistics, by the end of 2023 received the most funding these technological areas:

1. Carbon abatement. About $97 billion was spent on this. At the same time, in private financing of climate technologies note flaw. It is estimated that $2 trillion will need to be spent to achieve temperature control goals by 2030;

2. Renewable energy sources. Funding totaled just over US$94 billion;

3. Construction and building materials. Demand for more innovative materials and approaches to their production is growing, technology funding amounted to about $65.4 billion;

4. Operational management. It accounted for about $57 billion;

5. Recycling. About $56 billion was spent on technological solutions in this area;

6. Cybersecurity. This area worries almost all companies and is gaining momentum; investments also amounted to about $56 billion;

7. Metallurgy. Technologies include new solutions for the search and use of metals for a wide variety of fields and areas. Innovation costs: almost $55 billion;

8. Oil productionAbout $58 billion was spent on finding new technological solutions, mainly related to fuel production and processing;

9. Energy storage. Batteries are becoming increasingly important as electric vehicles and alternative energy sources develop. Almost $45 billion has been invested in this area;

10. Solar energy. Despite everything, this area continues to actively develop; about another $37 billion has been allocated for it.

However, in most studies, key importance is still given to the IT sector. Moreover, the calculations most often include costs taking into account employees, rent of premises, etc.

Thus, expenses on information technology, including computers, telephones, printers and other equipment, data center systems, software and communication services amounted in 2021 $4.26 trillion. In 2023, these costs totaled $4.7 trillion. In 2024, Gartner predicts that global IT spending will exceed $5 trillion.

What are the industry giants investing in?

Cost structures may vary by sector.

Fast growing technologies

At the end of 2021 in the world it was about 1.47 million tech startups. The largest part of them belonged to fintech – 7%. In 2023, costs for these technological directions:

1. Nuclear reactors. Investments have grown sharply against the backdrop of promises from Western corporations to introduce small nuclear reactors. Sanctions against Rosatom also played a role;

2. Radiation therapy. This method still remains one of the main ones in the fight against cancer;

3. Semiconductors. The AI ​​boom played a significant role here; the industry requires increasingly cheaper and more productive microchips;

4. Road infrastructure. As the flow of vehicles increases, so does the need to ensure their safety and speed;

5. Transport on demand. For the same reason, this industry is also actively growing, with regard to the transportation of both people and goods;

6. Cloud POS systems. This is already one of the main areas in IT development, but in 2023 investments in it also increased sharply;

7. Home security and automation. First of all, this includes the technology of so-called smart homes in one form or another.

There has also been a strong increase in interest in quality assurance, food transportation, and software.

If we talk about large companies, they follow market trends. For example, in 2022, almost 93% of Fortune 1000 companies decided to continue invest in artificial intelligence and big data.

According to the survey above from May 2023, companies allocated the most investments over the year to artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, and the Internet of things. Also indicated man-machine systemsnanobiology, biochemistry, synthetic biology.

Investments of the largest corporations

By 2022, about 50% of all technological growth provided AR/VR, robotics, SaaS and artificial intelligence. Moreover, many of them were created and developed long before this.

The picture shows the most innovative companies of 2023. Among the leaders in terms of spending on R&D:

Samsung. It’s not for nothing that this company has been the leader in the number of patent applications filed in recent years, beating even IBM. Samsung has more than 12 innovation centers and invests money in developing new products with innovative solutions such as smart cameras and up to 1 TB of data storage in smartphones.

Alphabet. The company is constantly looking for new ways to monetize the data they collect, as well as expanding its product range. Most of the R&D budget goes towards employee salaries and branch management. Moreover, almost the second most important area for Alphabet after IT is biology and health, in particular, technologies to slow down aging. Alphabet owns Calico, an anti-aging research company, and Verily, which makes smart devices (such as health tracking bands).

Volkswagen. It invests, as expected, in cars – in automation, design improvements and the use of lightweight materials. Actively files patent applications.

Microsoft. Microsoft Research was founded back in 1991. They are engaged in such areas of IT solutions as artificial intelligence, advertising, linguistics, social networks.

Huawei. The tech giant's major investments are focused on wireless networks and 5G. These studies are also aimed at the market for self-driving cars, which will need reliable communications to move around. In such networks with such a large load, AI must be managed, which is why the company is also involved in wireless AI.

Intel is staying the course and investing in data and technologies that can handle big data.

Costs for which technologies will grow in 2024-2026

By forecasts Soon, about 70% of the efforts of private companies will go to cloud technologies. Indeed, according to a survey by Enterprise Strategy Group, in 2024 cloud technologies and cybersecurity headed a list of what companies are going to invest in. GenAI also continues to have a significant impact on costs.

Gartner conducted a survey among technology and IT companies about what trends they will pay attention to in 2024-2026. This is what happened:

Artificial Intelligence Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM). Organizations have become proactive about managing the risks of AI to increase trust in their products. Companies that invest in TRiSM create more accurate AI models.

Continuous Threat Impact Management (CTEM). This implies continuous adjustment of what security systems are aimed at and how they operate. Companies using this approach are expected to reduce security breaches by 65% ​​or more by 2026.

Investments in sustainable development technologies (ESG – environmental, social, governance issues). It is believed that by 2027, the salary of a quarter of CIOs will depend on their influence on sustainable technologies.

Platform development. This applies to internal self-service platforms. Their creation allows you to optimize the work of developers.

Artificial intelligence. Special attention is paid to AI, which should help developers create applications and other products. At the beginning of 2023, less than 10% of programmers were using AI as an assistant, but this figure is predicted to rise to 75% by 2028.

Industry cloud platforms. These are cloud technologies that are adapted to a specific area of ​​business, and therefore optimal for the company’s products and tasks. At the beginning of 2023, 15% of companies used such technologies, and by 2027, according to forecasts, this figure should grow to 50% or more.

Intelligent applications. These are applications in which artificial intelligence is introduced, using data from external sources to improve the quality of service. It is predicted that by 2026, 30% of applications will use AI.

Technologies for searching and improving personnel. These are technologies that optimize and combine intelligent technologies with personnel analytics. Such technologies can reduce the time to acquire skills in key positions by 50%.

Machine clients. This is a concept in which the buyers of services are not people, but machines and devices, including intelligent ones. These customers are expected to make trillions of dollars worth of purchases, and the development of this area by 2030 will be more important than the emergence of e-commerce at the dawn of the Internet age.

Growth prospects

Perhaps, despite the huge investments in space, health, safety, transport and other technologies, the technological market for IT solutions still remains the brightest and most significant. It is expected to continue to grow. More and more people are using technology in the workplace, and more countries and regions are gaining access to high-speed networks, which also gives them access to both use and develop their own developments.

At the same time, new, very expensive technologies are appearing, but old technologies are becoming cheaper. For example, if a computer chip with 2,000 transistors cost $1,000 in 1970, today it costs only $0.02 to produce. Predictthat by the end of the decade, spending on IT alone will begin to reach $8 trillion a year.

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