A report issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization in cooperation with Lewis Business School found that investment in intangible assets surpassed $10 trillion during 2025, signaling an ongoing shift in the sources of economic value toward knowledge, technology and innovation. The report covers 29 economies representing approximately 57% of global gross domestic product.
The intangible assets tracked by the report include research and development, software and data, trademarks, design, organizational know-how and other intellectual property assets. These assets are not associated with factories or machinery that can be measured physically, but they have become an increasingly important part of companies’ and economies’ ability to raise productivity and compete.
A Widening Gap with Tangible Investment
Between 2008 and 2025, investment in intangible assets grew at a real compound annual growth rate of 3.5%, compared with 0.98% for investment in tangible assets. As a result, the growth rate of knowledge-based investment was more than three times that of physical investment.
The trend accelerated between 2015 and 2025, when intangible investment recorded an annual growth rate of 4.4%, compared with 1.8% for investment in tangible assets. Intangible investment growth also exceeded tangible investment growth in 22 of the 29 economies covered by the report.
Advanced and Developing Economies Face Different Needs
The shift is more evident in high-income, knowledge-based economies. In Japan, investment in the two types moved at similar rates until 2019, before tangible investment fell below its 2015 level while intangible investment continued to grow.
The United States, France and the United Kingdom recorded growth in both types of investment between 2015 and 2025, but intangible assets maintained a higher growth rate. Middle-income and fast-growing economies, such as India, Brazil and the Philippines, still need substantial tangible investment to expand infrastructure and modernize productive capacity, alongside growth in knowledge-based investment. In Brazil, the growth rate of intangible investment exceeded that of tangible investment.
Why Does This Shift Matter?
The findings show that investment in infrastructure and equipment has not lost its importance, particularly in emerging and middle-income economies, but it is no longer separate from investment in knowledge and technological capital. In practice, this means that supporting research and development, software development, data management, intellectual property protection, design and brand building has become complementary to, rather than a substitute for, physical spending.
The report’s limitations remain important when interpreting its findings; it covers only 29 economies, although they represent a large share of the global economy. The figures therefore demonstrate a broad trend in the economies included, but on their own they do not provide a detailed picture of the situation in each country or of the distribution of intangible investment across sectors and companies.