WIPO Global Innovation Index 2026: Switzerland, Sweden, US, Republic of Korea and Singapore Top Ranking; AI Reshaping Innovation Investments as Deep Science Startups Top $7.6 Trillion

Geneva, September 29, 2026
PR/2026/959

Artificial intelligence is driving a rebound in venture capital (VC) funding and research and development (R&D) spending, while emerging economies continue to show innovation growth alongside traditional innovation leaders, according to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2026.

Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America (US), the Republic of Korea and Singapore continue to lead the global innovation rankings in 2026. At the same time, China, India, Viet Nam, Türkiye, the Philippines, Morocco and Indonesia (in order of ranking) have been climbing up the ranks quickly over the past decade, with Brazil, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also on upward trajectories.

The WIPO GII uses some 80 indicators - from R&D, to high-tech trade, skilled employment and the licensing of intellectual property - in evaluating close to 140 economies on their innovation performance. It is the world's benchmark resource for policymakers, business leaders and others seeking to understand what is driving innovation in different economies.

According to GII 2026 estimates, global R&D expenditure grew by more than 3.3% in 2025 in real terms and it will expand by 3.6% in 2026 to $3.4 trillion. This growth in R&D spending is increasingly found in middle-income economies such as Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam. Corporate R&D grew at 5.8% in real terms in 2025 to $1.5 trillion, the highest on record, driven by software and AI companies as well as defense-related R&D.

The value of venture capital (VC) funding behind new innovative startups and business ideas grew 28% to $510 billion in 2025 - the strongest annual gain since 2021. But investment is increasingly concentrated, with AI accounting for 53% of global VC deal value (and 77% in the first half of 2026) even as the number of VC deals fell for a fourth consecutive year. VC activity is nonetheless spreading geographically: African startups raised about $3.2 billion in 2025, up 40% year-on-year.

At the same time, a new generation of deep-science startups is turning frontier research into new industries. A special thematic chapter in the GII 2026 mapped more than 30,000 startups active across semiconductors, robotics, quantum computing, life sciences, space and advanced materials, with particularly strong growth in Central and Southern Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

AI is opening new technological frontiers across all fields in science, while government and corporate research investments reached all-time highs in 2025. Our 2026 GII report shows that a new generation of deep-science startups is translating breakthroughs into products and transforming fields such as life sciences, space, robotics and clean energy. With many rich insights and data, I hope that the GII will help countries create a vibrant national innovation ecosystem that supports the translation of ideas to market and impact, driving productivity, creating opportunity and helping to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang

Global rankingsAll 2026 rankings

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According to the GII 2026, no new economies joined the top 15 this year, but Canada (16th), Australia (20th) and New Zealand (24th) regain ground, and the United Arab Emirates (25th) gains five places, entering the top 25.

Twenty-one economies perform above expectations for their level of development, four more than in 2025; 15 of them are lower middle- or low-income economies. India and Viet Nam remain the longest running overperformers, at 16 consecutive years. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts the largest number, seven, including South Africa for a ninth consecutive year. Mozambique, Pakistan and the Republic of Moldova return to the group, Bhutan overperforms in its first year, and Brazil remains the only overperformer in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• The GII 2026 in brief
• Download the full report

Special theme: Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science

The GII 2026 special thematic chapter examines how science-based startups and university spinouts turn their frontier research into commercial ventures, drawing on the new Dealroom-WIPO Deep Science Startup Tracker, the first global mapping of such firms. Among its findings:

• More than 30,000 deep science startups have been created since 2000, nearly ten times the 2010 figure, and their share of all venture-backed startups reached a high of 16% in 2025. Together they are worth $7.6 trillion, up 23% from 2024.
• The United States leads with 12,752 firms, followed by China (3,466) and the United Kingdom (2,133), but growth since 2020 has been fastest in Central and Southern Asia (118%), driven by India, Latin America and the Caribbean (71%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (65%). Türkiye, India, Malaysia, Brazil and South Africa lead the middle-income group. Deep science ventures are now emerging at every income level.
• Emerging start-ups and spin-offs stall at predictable points, from research to proof-of-concept and from pilot to commercial deployment, where Series B and C funding rounds are thinner.

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About the Global Innovation Index

The Global Innovation Index 2026 (GII) is published by WIPO with guidance from the GII Advisory Committee and the Industry Association Network (GIIIAN).

Now in its 19th edition, the GII has grown from a magazine article into a powerful instrument used by countries around the world to measure innovation and shape their economic policymaking. In WIPO's 2025-2026 survey, 78% of responding Member States (93 of 120) reported using the GII to improve innovation policy and data.

Published annually, the WIPO GII ranks 139 economies on their innovation ecosystems using 79 indicators, averaged across an Innovation Input Sub-Index (Institutions, Human capital and research, Infrastructure, Market sophistication, Business sophistication) and an Innovation Output Sub-Index (Knowledge and technology outputs, Creative outputs). New in the GII 2026 is an indicator on green-field R&D and high-tech FDI, based on announced investment projects.

For each economy, a dedicated Innovation Brief is available through the interactive GII Innovation Ecosystems and Data Explorer 2026, alongside briefs on the top 100 innovation clusters, downloadable datasets and the Dealroom-WIPO Deep Science Startup Tracker.

The GII is submitted to an independent statistical audit by the Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC-COIN).