Top Basic Materials Stocks by R&D Spending
Top basic materials companies ranked by R&D spending, latest annual filings.
What R&D Spending Means for Basic Materials Companies
R&D spending in basic materials concentrates in specialty chemicals, advanced alloys, and process engineering, where formulation and catalyst improvements translate directly into yield and margin. Pure mining and bulk commodity producers spend relatively little on formal research; their competitive advantage derives from ore grade, geography, and operating discipline rather than from laboratory science. The result is wide dispersion across the sector.
Why It Matters in Basic Materials
For specialty chemistry, sustained R&D supports pricing power on proprietary formulations that customers design into their own products and cannot easily switch away from. For commodity producers, the more meaningful investment lives in exploration and operating technology, often captured in capex. Process innovation in this sector frequently blurs the line between research and engineering, and different firms categorize it differently.
What to Read Alongside
Pair R&D with Gross Margin to see whether research supports pricing, Capex for the process-technology side where most improvement lives, and Free Cash Flow to judge through-cycle cash generation across the cycle.
| # | Symbol | Company | Sector | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CTVA | Corteva, Inc. | Basic Materials | $1.47B | $53.66B |
| 2 | DOW | Dow Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.75B | $20.70B |
| 3 | IFF | International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.69B | $21.87B |
| 4 | PPG | PPG Industries, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.45B | $23.83B |
| 5 | FMC | FMC Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.27B | $1.24B |
| 6 | EMN | Eastman Chemical Company | Basic Materials | $0.26B | $7.64B |
| 7 | ECL | Ecolab Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.20B | $77.57B |
| 8 | DD | DuPont de Nemours, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.19B | $17.67B |
| 9 | NEM | Newmont Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.17B | $130.18B |
| 10 | LIN | Linde plc | Basic Materials | $0.15B | $216.53B |
| 11 | LYB | LyondellBasell Industries N.V. | Basic Materials | $0.14B | $19.37B |
| 12 | NEU | NewMarket Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.13B | $8.18B |
| 13 | CE | Celanese Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.13B | $5.32B |
| 14 | HUN | Huntsman Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.12B | $1.60B |
| 15 | CC | The Chemours Company | Basic Materials | $0.11B | $2.22B |
| 16 | RPM | RPM International Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $12.77B |
| 17 | SOLS | Solstice Advanced Materials, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $9.21B |
| 18 | AVNT | Avient Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $3.76B |
| 19 | APD | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.10B | $63.90B |
| 20 | AXTA | Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $6.94B |
| 21 | ESI | Element Solutions Inc | Basic Materials | $0.07B | $8.64B |
| 22 | JHX | James Hardie Industries plc | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $15.59B |
| 23 | KWR | Quaker Chemical Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $2.73B |
| 24 | CBT | Cabot Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.06B | $4.07B |
| 25 | ASH | Ashland Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.05B | $3.16B |
| 26 | SXT | Sensient Technologies Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.05B | $5.48B |
| 27 | ALB | Albemarle Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.05B | $13.39B |
| 28 | CSTM | Constellium SE | Basic Materials | $0.05B | $3.38B |
| 29 | IOSP | Innospec Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.05B | $2.38B |
| 30 | SMG | The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company | Basic Materials | $0.03B | $3.08B |
| 31 | SCL | Stepan Company | Basic Materials | $0.03B | $1.47B |
| 32 | NGVT | Ingevity Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.03B | $2.47B |
| 33 | MTRN | Materion Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.03B | $5.31B |
| 34 | AA | Alcoa Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $11.62B |
| 35 | MATV | Mativ Holdings, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $0.68B |
| 36 | MTX | Minerals Technologies Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $2.08B |
| 37 | BCPC | Balchem Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $5.36B |
| 38 | KRO | Kronos Worldwide, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $0.97B |
| 39 | USAR | USA Rare Earth, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.02B | $5.94B |
| 40 | TROX | Tronox Holdings plc | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $0.69B |
| 41 | HYMC | Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $1.98B |
| 42 | SSD | Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $7.17B |
| 43 | LWLG | Lightwave Logic, Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $0.81B |
| 44 | KALU | Kaiser Aluminum Corporation | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $2.55B |
| 45 | WDFC | WD-40 Company | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $2.68B |
| 46 | RYAM | Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.01B | $0.62B |
| 47 | ODC | Oil-Dri Corporation of America | Basic Materials | $0.00B | $1.30B |
| 48 | IE | Ivanhoe Electric Inc. | Basic Materials | $0.00B | $1.66B |
No companies match this search.
How this ranking is built
Companies are ranked by R&D spending as reported in their most recent annual filing with the SEC. Figures shown are in US dollars (or percent, as noted), rounded to two decimals.
- Source: annual 10-K / 20-F filings from companies trading on US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX).
- Fiscal year: whichever annual period the company has most recently filed. Fiscal years don't always align with the calendar year, so the "as of FY" stamp above reflects the most common year across the table.
- Filtered out: warrants, preferred shares, and duplicate listings that share a parent company's financials.
- Size floor: A company qualifies at $500 million in market cap or above. Below that, one mis-stated figure outranks the companies the list is about.
- Currency check: A company whose annual revenue runs above 15 times its market cap is left out, because at that gap the two figures are not in the same currency.
- Currency check: A company whose balance sheet runs above 150 times its market cap is left out for the same reason.
- Update cadence: refreshed as companies file new annual reports (typically within 60–90 days of fiscal year end).
Not financial advice. This is a research tool, not a recommendation.