, Columnist
Amazon and Google Change the R&D Race
The rate of growth is remarkable, however you define it.
Not your father's R&D.
Photographer: Martin Divisek/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The numbers for another quarter are in, and it's becoming ever clearer that Amazon.com and Google's parent company, Alphabet, are pulling away from their U.S. peers in research and development spending:
As noted in the chart, though, there is something a little bit different about Amazon's (huge) number. There's no requirement that corporations report what they spend on R&D, and Amazon doesn't, exactly. Instead, it has a line item in its income statement for spending on "technology and content." It's been that way since the company's 1999 annual report (before that it was called "product development"), and in the 2010 annual report Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos offered something of an explanation for why: