Samsung's R&D spending hits nine-month record-high 15.89 trillion won

Samsung Electronics Co.'s research and development (R&D) spending for the first nine months of the year hit a record high of 15.89 trillion won, representing a 600 billion-won increase from a year earlier.

It was also over 5 trillion won from its R&D investment tally in the first half of the year.

Samsung's investment in research has been consistently increasing since 2017 when it spent 16.8 trillion won, to 2018 when it allocated 18.7 trillion won, and in 2019 when it spent 20.2 trillion won.

In the third quarter, the South Korean tech giant registered 4,974 patents locally and 6,321 patents in the US.

It has registered 194,643 patents globally, with 77,016 patents of those in the US.

Samsung's capital expenditure is expected to reach 35.2 trillion won this year, the first time since 2017 to surpass the 30-trillion won mark.

In the first nine months, its capital expenditure reached 25.5 trillion won, up 52 percent from the same period last year.