For many of the world's top 150 technology companies, spending on research and development continues to take a beating. A quick scan of the R&D Corporate Scorecard reveals an abundance of negative numbers, especially in electronics and telecommunications: Ericsson, Lucent, and Nortel Networks have cut budgets more than a third, while Cisco Systems is down by a quarter. The semiconductor sector is also unsteady, with Intel's and Texas Instruments' expenditures flat.

The good news is that R&D spending as a whole is up more than $4 billion compared to last year, with bright spots in biotech and automotive. Spending by biotech companies has more than doubled, and automakers are shelling out $5 billion more for research and development than they did last year. In fact, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler rank number one and two among all corporations worldwide, laying out $7.4 billion and $6.4 billion, respectively.