2025年世界无形投资亮点（英）2025

Key trends and insights Co-published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in partnershipwith the Luiss Business School (LBS), this second edition of theWorld Intangible InvestmentHighlights(WIIH) reveals thatintangibleinvestment in the global economy has grown wellover three times faster thantangibleinvestment since 2008, despite economic headwinds andbusiness uncertainty. Investment in intangibles – such as software and databases, intellectual property (IP), researchand development (R&D), brands and design (see box 1) – now constitutes a large and growingshare of world gross domestic product (GDP). Leadership in the global intangible economy ismultifaceted: the United States of America (US) dominates in terms of absolute investment,Sweden leads in terms of intangible investment intensity (i.e., intangible investment as a shareof GDP) and India has recorded the fastest growth. Software and data emerges once again asthe fastest growing category of intangibles and this year’s special theme elaborates on thelinkages between artificial intelligence and intangible and tangible investment (see box 2). The WIIH 2025 and its underlyingGlobal INTAN-Invest Database(July 2025) provideunprecedented statistics on cross-country investment – both annual and quarterly – spanning27 high- and middle-income economies, including updated estimates for India (until 2022) andJapan (until 2023), and first-ever estimates for Brazil. Together, these 27 economies accountedfor more than half of global GDP in 2024. The dataset covers all intangible asset classes,including those assets not yet included in official statistics, thus helping to bridge data gaps andfacilitate evidence-based policymaking (see annex). The seven stylized trends in intangible investment for 2025 are as follows. Stylized trend 1: Intangible investment grew well over three timesfaster than tangible investment between 2008–2024 Among the 27 economies covered by this report, intangible investment has been consistentlyoutpacing tangible investment over time (figure 1).1Since 1995 – the earliest year for whichdata are available – intangible investment has more than doubled in real terms, growing by 143percent, whereas tangible investment has grown by just 32 percent. A significant turning point came around 2008, when intangible investment began to accelerate,ultimately achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.1 percent between2008–2024. This growth rate has far surpassed that of tangible investment, which expandedby only about 1.1 percent over the same period. This has meant that intangible investment hasgrown well over three times — 3.7 times to be precise — as fast as tangible investment between2008-2024. In the last year alone, intangible investment grew by nearly 3 percent between2023–2024, compared to a tangible investment growth of 1 percent. Total intangible and tangible investment, 1995–2024, indexed (1995=100) Box 1 Investment in intangible assets – an explanation What are intangible assets? Today's most valuable companies derive their competitiveadvantage not from physical capital, but from intangible assets – such as R&D, software,data, design, branding, organizational know-how and skilled talent, all creating substantialeconomic value. Why do they matter?Intangible assets drive competitive advantage, innovation and customerloyalty in a knowledge economy. Though invisible, they fuel economic growth, create high-paying jobs and improve living standards. Why measure them accurately?Despite their critical importance, intangible assets remain poorlyunderstood and under-measured. Precise measurement is essential for identifying growthdrivers and designing effective policies. Poor measurement leads to undervaluation, capitalmisallocation, underinvestment and, ultimately, misguided policymaking. The divergence in growth between tangible and intangible investment has widened in recentyears. Tangible investment has remained almost flat since 2020 amid tightening monetarypolicies and global economic uncertainty, whereas intangible investment, across the economiescovered in this report, has continued to climb, reaching USD 7.6 trillion (in current prices) in2024, up from USD 7.4 trillion in 2023.2 This same stark divergence in investment growth rates is evident across major advancedeconomies, as well as in Brazil and India. Across these countries, intangible investment hasconsistently outpaced tangible investment, a trend that has persisted even amid periods ofslowing economic growth and low business confidence (figures 2, 3 and 4). In the US, intangible investment grew more than five times faster than tangible investmentbetween 2020–2024 (figure 2). France followed a similar pattern, with intangible investmentincreasing at a rate three times faster than tangible investment. This divergence is even morepronounced in Germany, where intangible investment increased by over 3 percent annuallyduring the period, wh