Alibaba is doubling its R&D spend to $5 billion — but that’s less than a third of what Amazon spends

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is increasing its research and development spending to $15 billion over the next three years — $5 billion per year on average — in the hopes of competing with U.S. tech giants like Amazon and Google.

But even by doubling its previous fiscal year’s spending of $2.5 billion, Alibaba will still fall far behind its American counterparts. Last year its most obvious rival, Amazon, spent $16.1 billion on R&D, more than any company in the world.

According to Bloomberg, part of the increased spending will go toward “moonshot” projects and a research unit that will set up R&D labs around the world.

In the U.S., tech companies lead the S&P 500 in R&D spending. Alibaba had to increase its spending just to keep up.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Explanatory journalism is a public good

At Vox, we believe that everyone deserves access to information that helps them understand and shape the world they live in. That's why we keep our work free. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via