Samsung Electronics was the largest research and development spender in the world last year.
According to the 2018 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, the South Korean tech giant invested more than 15 billion U.S. dollars for R&D in 2017.
That amounts to an eleven-and-a-half percent increase compared to the previous year.
Samsung was followed by Google's holding company Alphabet and German auto giant Volkswagen.
It's the first time the South Korean company has taken the top spot since the data was first compiled in 2004.