Türkiye’s top industrial companies increase R&D spending to record levels

Şevval Aydoğan- ISTANBUL  

Research and development (R&D) expenditures among Türkiye’s largest industrial companies rose sharply in 2025, according to the Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s (İSO) latest “Top 500 Industrial Enterprises” survey.

The survey showed that total R&D spending increased by 31.4 percent year-on-year, climbing from 60.6 billion Turkish Liras in 2024 to 79.7 billion liras ($1.72 billion) in 2025.

The number of industrial companies reporting R&D expenditures also reached its highest level since 2018. After remaining unchanged at 265 in both 2023 and 2024, the number rose by eight firms to 273 in 2025.

Despite the increase in R&D activity, low- and medium-low-technology industries continued to account for the largest share of value added. These industries generated 33 percent of total value added last year, while medium-high-technology sectors accounted for 26.4 percent.

The share of high-technology industries increased by 0.2 percentage points from the previous year to 7.6 percent but remained the smallest contributor among the technology groups.

According to the survey, the defense industry played a significant role in the improvement recorded in high-technology sectors.

ISO 500 data showed that the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers ranked first in R&D spending last year, with expenditures reaching 39.1 billion liras.

The sector was followed by electrical equipment manufacturing, which spent 9.7 billion liras on R&D and the manufacture of computers, electronic and optical products, which recorded R&D expenditures of 8.6 billion liras.